t 


THE   FLOWERY  REPUBLIC 


YUAN  SHIH-K'AI 
Peking,  1911-12 


THE 
FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 


BY 
FREDERICK   McCORMICK 

SPECIAL  CORRESPONDENT   AT  PEKING 
AUTHOR   OF    "THE   TRAGEDY   OF   RUSSIA   IN   PACIFIC   ASIA,"   ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW   YORK 

D.  APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 
1913 


COPYRIGHT,  1913,  BY 
D.  APPLETON  AND   COMPANY 


TO  THE 

BLACK-HAIRED    PEOPLE, 

FRIENDS,  HOSTS    AND    COUNCILLORS, 

AMONG  WHOM  T  HAVE   LIVED  DURING  FRUITFUL  YEARS. 
MY   HEART  IS  IN  THEIR  FUTURE. 


PREFACE 

AT  the  outset  of  her  Revolution  China  is  at  her  zenith  under 
a  matchless  though  ancient  and  obsolete  system.  She  has  a 
full  appreciation  of  her  past  and  has  received  great  gifts  from 
the  West.  This  is  indeed,  to  her,  the  true  Golden  Age. 

There  is  an  idea  in  the  world  that  China  has  grown  old 
and  that  her  civilisation  is  in  decay,  whereas,  under  the  sys- 
tem which  she  has  developed  in  the  past,  China  has  reached 
the  pinnacle  of  earthly  glory  so  far  as  she  has  ever  known 
earthly  glory.  After  the  Mongols  extinguished  the  powers 
of  conquest  in  Western  Asia,  leaving  Europe  disposed  of,  so 
to  speak,  China  wa.s  free  to  absorb  the  so-called  barbarian 
tribes  remaining  on  her  borders,  and  she  steadily  grew  and 
progressed,  until  she  is  larger,  greater,  more  prosperous  than 
ever  before,  and  exhibits  a  greater  proportion,  as  well  as  a 
larger  number  of  contented  if  not  happy  human  beings  than 
are  to  be  found  elsewhere  on  the  globe.  Civilisation  should 
treasure  these  facts  as  time  brings  its  revolutionary  crash, 
supercilious  iconoclasm,  and  sacrilege. 

Western  civilisation  overtook  China  so  speedily  that  she 
was  unable  to  adjust  herself  to  it.  The  ruling  Manchu  Dyn- 
asty, though  old,  degenerate,  and  decrepit,  was  not  unaware 
of  China's  situation  and  had  a  truer  knowledge  of  its  own 
situation  than  had  others.  The  last  great  warning  of  the  ap- 
proach of  the  West  came  with  the  Boxer  War,  and  the  task 
of  the  Throne  to  steer  between  the  two  hells  of  foreign  inter- 
vention and  internal  rebellion  became  a  hundredfold  more  pre- 

vii 


PREFACE 

carious  and  dangerous.  The  Dynasty  was  obliged  to  take  the 
course  most  likely  to  end  in  destruction.  Everything  it  did 
led  to  its  downfall,  and,  at  the  last,  added  by  so  much  to  the 
momentum  of  its  damnation.  To  save  the  country  it  pro- 
claimed a  complete  modernisation.  Between  1904,  when  the 
revolutionary  temper  of  the  people  had  crystallised  sufficiently 
to  gauge  it,  and  1908,  the  time  of  their  deaths,  the  rulers  of 
China  issued  36  edicts  in  promotion  of  the  Constitution  alone. 
The  country  could  not  assimilate  such  strong  medicine  as 
these  reform  ideas,  which  only  increased  the  avidity  of  the 
revolutionaries  and  hurried  on  rebellion.  Everything  led 
down,  down,  down.  With  the  knowledge  of  its  impending 
fate,  the  Dynasty  descended,  open-eyed,  tinder  the  ministry 
of  its  patriarchal  high  priest,  Prince  Ching,  into  perdition. 
We  who  love  great  events  are  fortunate  to  witness  the  pass- 
ing of  Pharaohs,  of  Caesars,  and  of  Moghuls  in  our  time. 

In  the  preparation  of  these  pages  on  this  theme  I  am  in- 
debted to  my  twelve  years'  observations  and  study  in  China, 
and  my  travels  from  the  Argun  to  the  Pearl  during  the  dis- 
orders attending  the  rebellion  against  the  Manchus.  I  am 
also  indebted  to  the  Chinese  Press ;  to  the  foreign  newspapers 
in  China,  The  North  China  Herald  and  its  translators,  and 
The  Central  China.  Post ;  as  well  as  to  The  London  Times  for 
versions  of  certain  events;  and  to  Hon.  Edward  T.  Williams 
and  Dr.  Charles  D.  Tenney,  Orientalists  and  sinologues,  for 
several  translations ;  to  all  my  thanks  are  expressed. 

FREDERICK  McCORMICK. 


REVOLUTIONARY  SCENARIO 

1838-1911 

1838 

Protestant  schools  of  Christian  knowledge  opened. 

1842-60 

Seventeen  Treaty  ports  opened  to  foreigners. 

* 
1870 

Chinese  students  arrive  in  numbers  in  America  to  study. 


Kang  Yu-wei  and  Liang  Chi-ch'ao,  two  reformers,  arrive 
in  Peking,  and  June  14 — August  14  Emperor  Kuang  Hsu  is- 
sues reform  decrees,  a  period  known  as  the  "  Hundred  Days 
Reform."  Old-style  literary  examinations  abolished;  troops 
ordered  reorganised;  colleges  and  high  schools  established; 
calligraphy  as  a  test  of  merit  abolished;  newspapers  ordered 
for  all  provinces ;  official  classes  exhorted  to  turn  their  atten- 
tion to  reforms ;  naval  colleges  and  railway  and  mining  bu- 
reaus ordered;  obsolete  offices  and  sinecures  in  Peking  abol- 
ished; announcement  that  the  Emperor  would  escort  the  Em- 
press [Grand]  Dowager  to  Tientsin  to  review  the  troops;  of- 
ficials of  the  Board  of  Rites  all  cashiered  for  suppressing  a 
memorial  to  the  Throne;  modern  roads  and  enrolment  of 
militia  ordered ;  and  finally,  all  reform  decrees  ordered  printed 
on  Yellow  Imperial  Papers  for  general  distribution.  Em- 

ix 


REVOLUTIONARY    SCENARIO 

press  [Grand]  Dowager  surprises  and  arrests  Kuang  Hsu  in 
the  Forbidden  City,  and  resumes  the  Throne  which  she  pre- 
viously turned  over  to  him.  Kang  Yu-wei  flees ;  the  Empress 
[Grand]  Dowager  executes  six  reformers  without  trial;  and 
the  Chinese  Reform  Party  is  established  and  begins  a  propa- 
ganda throughout  the  world. 


1900 

Trained  bands,  the  "  Boxers,"  appear  in  Shantung,  encour- 
aged by  Yu  Hsien,  the  Governor,  and  opposed  by  Jung  Lu, 
Generalissimo  at  Peking;  murder  Christian  converts,  the  Jap- 
anese Secretary  of  Legation  Sugiyama,  the  German  Minister 
Baron  von  Ketteler,  and  many  other  foreigners ;  destroy  and 
burn ;  provoke  foreign  military  occupation  of  North  China ; 
cause  the  Court  to  flee  for  safety,  and  cause  an  indemnity  of 
Taels  450,000,000  to  be  imposed  by  the  Allied  Powers  upon 
China.  Rebellion  in  Kuangtung. 


1901 

Prince  Chun  goes  to  Germany  to  expiate  the  murder  of 
Baron  von  Ketteler ;  an  edict  commands  investigations  for  the 
improvement  of  government;  Pu  Chun,  the  evil  Heir- Appar- 
ent, is  deposed. 


1902 

The  Court  returns  to  Peking,  and  the  Throne  denounces 
foot-binding,  neglect  in  establishing  schools  of  modern  learn- 
ing, and  recommends  the  adoption  of  modern  laws.  Thirty 
students  are  sent  to  Japan  to  study  military  education ;  Prince 
Tsai  Chen  goes  to  England  as  Envoy  to  King  Edward's  corona- 
tion ;  Chinese  students  at  Tokio  rise  and  assault  the  Chinese 
Legation.  The  Throne  orders  viceroys  and  governors  to  se- 
lect suitable  youths  and  send  them  to  America  and  Europe  to 
study ;  provincial  armies  are  ordered  to  be  reorganised ;  Kuang 


REVOLUTIONARY    SCENARIO 

Hsu  receives  the  Diplomatic  Body;  and  the  Government  de- 
cides to  establish  a  Ministry  of  Education.  Newspapers  take 
foothold  in  Peking  and,  1903-1907,  rapidly  multiply.  1902- 
1910  Protestant  missions  unify  in  educational  matters  and  ex- 
tend colleges  and  universities.  China  sends  students  abroad, 
arranges  to  send  fifty  students  annually  to  America  for  thirty 
years,  and  calls  foreign  teachers  from  Japan  and  the  West. 
British  and  Germans  establish  higher  schools  of  learning  in 
Hong-kong,  Hankow,  and  Tsingtao.  The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  extends 
to  all  the  principal  cities.  Rebellion  in  Kuanghsi. 

1903 

Jung  Lu.  protector  of  the  Foreign  Legations,  dies  at  Pe- 
king, and  Shen  Chin  the  reformer  is  beaten  to  death  by  order 
of  the  Empress  [Grand]  Dowager. 

1904 

Throne  grants  amnesty  to  all  the  1898  reformers  except 
Kang  Yu-wei,  Liang  Chi-ch'ao,  and  Sun  Yat-sen. 


Chinese  boycott  things  American  —  the  first  Chinese  boy- 
cott. Throne  creates  special  Mission  to  study  governmental 
methods  abroad  ;  abolishes  the  old-style  literary  examinations. 
Three  high  officials  of  the  special  Mission  are  wounded  by  a 
revolutionary  bomb  on  leaving  Peking,  one  attache  is  killed 
and  three  underlings  are  wounded.  Modern  review  of  the  Im- 
perial Grand  Army  is  held  ;  the  Peking-Hankow  Railway  and 
Shanghai-Nanking  Railway  (first  section)  are  opened. 

1906 

Throne  creates  the  Bureau  of  Governmental  Methods, 
urges  higher  officials  to  promote  education  and  prepare  the 
people  for  constitutional  government,  and  proscribes  opium. 

xi 


REVOLUTIONARY    SCENARIO 

The  World's  Chinese  Student  Federation  is  organised  and  es- 
tablishes a  Federation  newspaper. 


1907 

Throne  orders  poppy  culture  for  1908  reduced  one-half, 
and  closes  opium  dens  in  Shanghai,  Canton,  Wuhu  and  else- 
where, and  prohibits  opium  smoking  and  planting.  The  Board 
of  War  decides  to  open  a  Naval  Academy  and  naval  schools. 
En  Ming,  Governor  of  Anhuei,  is  assassinated  by  revolu- 
tionaries, and  the  principal  of  the  Tatung  School,  Kashing, 
Chekiang,  the  lady  Chiu  Chin,  is  executed  for  complicity  in  the 
assassination.  The  Throne  orders  administrative  reforms, 
asks  for  recommendations  from  officials,  establishes  the  Bureau 
of  Governmental  Methods  to  prepare  for  the  Constitution; 
receives  plans  from  Prince  Ching  and  Sun  Chia-nai  for  re- 
organisation of  provincial  governments;  sends  three  commis- 
sioners to  study  the  governments  of  England,  Germany,  and 
Japan;  orders  preparations  for  Provincial  Assemblies  and  the 
National  Assembly  and  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  of  repre- 
sentative government;  protests  through  its  representatives  at 
The  Hague  Conference  to  being  rated  as  a  third-class  Power, 
and  decides  to  send  nobles  to  Europe  and  America  to  study, 
but  riot  to  Japan.  Ministry  of  War  decides  to  reorganise  the 
navy  and  make  a  naval  base  at  San  Men  Bay.  Ching  Pao — 
Chinese  newspaper  at  Peking — suppressed.  Rebellion  in 
Kuangtung  and  Kuanghsi. 

1908 

The  Ministry  of  War  decides  on  establishing  three  ar- 
senals. Shansi  redeems  vast  mining  concessions  from  the 
British  for  Taels  2,700,000.  Chinese  in  America  petition  Em- 
press [Grand]  Dowager  to  restore  the  throne  to  Kuang  Hsu. 
Throne  takes  effective  measures  to  reduce  opium  culture,  pro- 
mulgates new  mining  laws,  appoints  Sir  Walter  Hillier  Ad- 
viser to  the  Government,  sanctions  the  general  principles  of  a 
Constitution,  and  dispatches  Tang  Shao-yi  to  foreign  coun- 

xii 


REVOLUTIONARY    SCENARIO 

tries  to  negotiate  financial  matters  and  obtain  a  loan.  Depu- 
tations of  reformers  reach  Peking  to  demand  Parliament  im- 
mediately ;  the  Emperor  Kuang  Hsu  dies  and  is  succeeded  by 
Pu  Yi  as  the  Hsuan  Tung  Emperor;  the  Empress  [Grand] 
Dowager  dies.  The  Imperial  Army  opens  manoeuvres  at  Tai- 
hu  in  Anhuei ;  1000  soldiers  mutiny  at  the  Capital,  Anking. 
Concerted  opposition  to  foreign  loans  for  railways  and  indus- 
trial development  in  China  is  established.  Rebellion  in 
Kuanghsi. 

1909 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  dismissed;  the  Emperor  and  the  Em- 
press [Grand]  Dowager  are  ceremonially  buried;  the  Peking- 
Kalgan  Railway  is  opened.  Chang  Shih-tung  dies ;  Tuan  Fang 
is  dismissed ;  the  Provincial  Assemblies  are  opened,  and  work 
by  Chinese  begins  on  the  Szechuan  Railway.  Continuous  op- 
position in  Hunan  and  Hupeh  to  foreign  loans  for  railways 
and  industrial  development. 


1910 

The  Throne  abolishes  slavery;  the  National  Assembly 
opens  at  Peking,  and  secures  a  promise  from  the  Throne  to 
rule  through  a  Cabinet  and  to  summon  the  National  Parlia- 
ment in  1914  instead  of  1917. 


1911 

Queue-cutting  is  formally  inaugurated  at  Shanghai;  the 
Throne  commands  reform,  and  retrenchment  in  expenditures ; 
and  abrogates  torture  in  the  Courts.  Li  Lien-ying,  chief 
eunuch  for  forty  years  and  leading  corruptionist  in  Peking, 
dies ;  Central  Government  embarks  on  its  policy  of  industrial 
development,  contracting  loans  aggregating  $87,500,000  gold. 
Emperor  becomes  supreme  commander  of  the  army  and  navy ; 
Fu  Chi,  Tartar  General  at  Canton,  is  assassinated ;  revolution- 
aries attack  Viceroy's  yamen  at  Canton ;  Throne  proclaims  its 

xiii 


REVOLUTIONARY    SCENARIO 

policy  of  nationalisation  of  railways;  Tuan  Fang  recalled  to 
office  as  Director-General  of  Railways;  reformers  and  revo- 
lutionaries, fearing  substitution  of  graft  on  Imperial  scale  and 
deprivation  of  incomes  of  the  provinces  by  railway  nationali- 
sation, threaten  rebellion,  causing  outbreaks  in  Hunan.  The 
National  Assembly  opens  at  Peking  amid  demands  from  the 
people  for  control,  itself  clamouring  for  legislative  powers  and 
government  of  the  Empire  by  Parliament. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I. — FLEEING  WITH  THE  AMBAN  OF  MONGOLIA         .  i 

II. — FLEEING    WITH    THE    AMBAN    OF    MONGOLIA — 

Concluded    .......  9 

III. — THE  MONGOL  REBELS       .         . '                 .  17 

IV. — WITHIN  THE  GREAT  WALL       ....  28 

V. — WITHIN  THE  WALLS  OF  PEKING       ...  38 

VI. — WHEN   SZECHUAN   REVOLTED    .         .         .  51 

VII. — WHEN  SZECHUAN  FELL  .         .  .         -59 

VIII. — WHEN    WUCHANG   SECEDED      ....  70 

IX. — WHEN   WUCHANG   SECEDED — -.Concluded    .         .  83 

X. — OCTOBER   IN    PEKING        .....  93 

XL — HANKOW — A   BATTLE       .....  108 

XII. — FOREIGN  CONCESSIONS  UNDER  FIRE  .         .         .  127 

XIII. — THE  PEN  OF  Li  YUAN-HUNG   .         .                   .  137 

XIV. — HANYANG — A   BATTLE 148 

XV. — NOVEMBER  IN   PEKING 157 

XVI. — THE  REPUBLIC  AT  THE  GATES  OF  PEKING         .  168 

XVII. — DECEMBER   IN   PEKING     .....  181 

XVIII. — JANUARY   AND  ABDICATION       ....  195 

XIX. — ACROSS  CHIHLI  AND  SHANTUNG  WITH   POLICE 

AND  SPIES    .......  209 

XX. — SHANGHAI  JUNTA  AND  Wu  TING-FANG  .         .  221 
XXL — CANTON   THE   GIPSY   QUEEN    AND    MOTHER   OF 

REVOLUTION           .         .                            .         .  236 
xv 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXII. — ALONG  THE  COAST  WITH  A  REBEL  GENERAL       .  251 

XXIII. — WHEN   NANKING  FELL    .....  260 

XXIV. — SUN   YAT-SEN   EMERGES  FROM   OBSCURITY        .  272 

XXV. — INAUGURATING  A  CHINESE  PRESIDENT       .         .  276 

XXVI. — FINANCING  A  FLOWERY  REPUBLIC   .         .         .  282 

XXVII. — OLD  REVOLUTIONARY  FRIENDS  ....  292 

XXVIII. — MY  INTERVIEW   WITH   SUN   YAT-SEN        .         .  300 

XXIX. — THE   REPUBLIC,  JAPAN,  AND   ABDICATION         .  308 

XXX. — WORLD  INFLUENCE  IN  THE   REPUBLIC      .         .  318 

XXXI. — JAPAN,  AMERICA,  AND  REVOLUTION  .         .         .  326 

XXXII. — UNITING  THE  REPUBLIC  AND  EMPIRE       .         .  335 

XXXIII. — THE  MIDNIGHT  WAR  VIGIL  AT  NANKING       .  347 

XXXIV. — THE  INAUGURATION  AT  PEKING       .         .         .  353 

XXXV. — SUN   YAT-SEN'S   FAREWELL       •         «•         •         •  364 

XXXVL— YUAN    SHIH-K'AI    .         .         .         ,         .         .368 

XXXVII. — THE  PRESIDENT,  THE  NATION,  AND  THE  WORLD  380 

XXXVIIL— PART  OF  THE  PEOPLE                         f         .         .  389 

XXXIX. — LAST  COURT  OF  THE  MANCHUS        .     /  .         .  394 

XL. — REPUBLICAN  STATE  PAPERS       .         .         .         .  407 

XLI. — THE    MANCHU    DYNASTY         .         .         .         .415 

XLII. — THE  "FLOWERY  REPUBLIC"      .         .         ...  424 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


YUAN   SHIH-K'AI        .... 
THE  SHIP  OF  STATE  IN  CHINA  . 

THE  OFFICIALS  AND  THE  LEAN   PEOPLE: 
AND  THE  FOREIGNERS   . 


Frontispiece 


THE  MANDARIN 


FACING 
PAGE 


WUCHANG  AND  SURROUNDINGS   ...... 

DEFENSE   OF   HANKOW 

MOBILISING  THE  IMPERIALIST  ARMY   ..... 

PANIC  IN  PEKING 

PANIC  IN  PEKING — Continued    ...... 

THE  "BOMB  PIONEERS"  OF  KUANGTUNG        .... 

FIGHT  AT  THE  T'AI-PING  GATE — BATTLE  OF  NANKING 
CHINA  AND  THE  POWERS    ....... 

PRESIDENT  SUN  YAT-SEN  LEAVING  THE  MING  TOMBS  ON  THE 
OCCASION  OF  THE  CEREMONY  ANNOUNCING  TO  THE 
SPIRITS  OF  THE  CHINESE  EMPERORS  THE  RECOVERY  OF 
THE  STATE  BY  THE  HANS  ...... 

NANKING   ASSEMBLY,    FEBRUARY,    1912        .... 

SUN  YAT-SEN     ......... 

CHIEN  LUNG,  GREATEST  OF  THE  MANCHU  EMPERORS     . 

Pu  Yi,  THE  LAST  MANCHU  EMPEROR,  1908,  AT  THE  TIME 
OF  His  ACCESSION 


12 

52 

72 

114 

134 
160 
172 
246 
262 
288 


338 
354 
366 
420 

422 


THE  FLOWERY  REPUBLIC 


I 


CHAPTER  I 
FLEEING  WITH   THE  AMBAN   OF   MONGOLIA 

WAS  skirting-  China's  northern  frontier,  passing  Lake 
Baikal,  which  almost  touches  Mongolia,  and  which  was 
so  long-  the  barrier  to  the  Trans-Siberian  Railway.  It 
was  the  beginning  of  winter  1911.  The  Mongolian  "Inde- 
pendency" had  just  been  declared  at  Urga,  over  the  Mongo- 
lian border  and  directly  south.  It  embraced  those  territories 
of  China  known  as  Outer  Mongolia,  which  were  the  last  to 
fall  away  from  the  Manchu  Throne.  This  straw  of  Mongolian 
secession  came  but  a  little  while  before  the  breaking  of  the 
Manchu  camel's  back. 

The  Manchu  Imperial  Resident  at  Urga,  San  Ta,  was  in 
full  flight  from  Mongolia's  religious  and  political  Capital, 
driven  out  by  lama  rulers.  He  was  approaching  the  Siberian 
frontier.  Duly  warned  of  impending  events  at  Urga,  he 
had  begged  protection  of  the  Russian  Governor-General  of 
Trans-Baikalia  at  Irkutsk.  The  telegraph  line  which  crosses 
Mongolia's  heart — the  Desert  of  Gobi — and  reaches  to  Kiachta, 
was  busy  clicking  off  distress  signals  from  San  Ta  dispatched 
in  both  directions  to  Peking.  Over  the  same  wires  went  Rus- 
sian political  dispatches,  inquiries  of  the  Board  of  Colonies' 
at  Peking,  and  messages  of  the  Mongol  conspirators  at  all 
points.  A  train  of  two  hundred  camels  weighted  with  Berdan 

(rifles  discarded  from  Russian  arsenals,  was  leaving  Kiachta 
for  Urga  to  equip  the  new  army  of  the  "Independency." 
The  Russian  Governor-General  reading  dispatches  from 
the  Director  of  Russian  Railways  at  Harbin,  discounted  San 
Ta's  apparent  danger,  and  sent  him  a  reassuring  telegram. 
In  Russia  there  was  no  danger,  he  would  require  no  protection 

I 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

that  all  did  not  have — this  was  the  gist  of  the  Governor-Gen- 
eral's message  to  San  Ta,  which  concluded  with  an  offer  of 
the  hospitality  of  the  Trans-Siberian  Railway,  to  enable  the 
fleeing  Resident  and  his  suite  to  return  to  China. 

Dispatches  forwarded  by  agents  of  the  Russian  Govern- 
ment to  St.  Petersburg  in  explanation  of  these  movements 
had  been  handed  to  me.  Aboard  the  Siberian  express,  with 
these  dispatches  in  my  hand,  with  the  knowledge  that  the  dis- 
tressed Resident  with  his  face  turned  to  the  Russian  frontier 
was  straining  the  energies  of  his  whole  party  to  reach  this 
Imperial  military-protected  railway,  this  and  the  vision  of  an 
awakened  Mongolia  meant  more  to  me  possibly  than  it  meant 
to  any  other  person  in  the  train.  To  a  war  correspondent 
like  myself,  who  had  followed  the  armies  of  twelve  years  in 
these  regions,  these  present  events  seemed  more  important 
in  the  lives  of  the  Mongols  than  anything  that  had  happened 
at  Urga  since  Temudjin  confederated  the  Tartar  tribes  into 
the  Buriat  State  in  the  Middle  Ages  and  became  Genghis 
Khan.  I  had  seen  the  Russian  Frontier  Guards  cross  the  bar- 
rier of  the  Great  Wall  in  1900.  I  had  seen  the  Russian  Army 
flow  around  the  Baikal  and  over  the  Great  Kinghan  in  1904. 
I  had  visited  the  capitals  of  forgotten  Tartar  kingdoms,  made 
pilgrimages  to  boundaries  whose  monuments  no  man  can  read, 
and  pictured  in  valleys  visible  from  the  car  windows  and  now 
deep  in  Siberian  snows,  seas  of  Mongols  mount  oceans  of 
horses  and  ride  away  to  the  Altai,  the  Caucasus,  and  the 
Carpathians. 

The  atmosphere  of  the  train  resembled  that  of  the  time 
of  the  Boxer  War — charged  with  the  current  of  prevailing, 
world-encircling  revolution,  of  which  the  Chinese  "Republic" 
was  in  all  the  circle  the  most  amazing  manifestation.  Present 
conditions  in  Eastern  Asia  were  forcibly  illustrated  by  the 
mixture  of  types  on  the  train.  Japanese  officials  recalled  from 
Europe  and  America  were  being  sent  by  their  Governments 
to  Southern  Manchuria.  Two  Chinese  student-revolutionists 
were  hurrying  to  join  the  army  of  the  "Republic"  at  Wu- 
chang on  the  Yangtse.  Sales  agents  of  European  ordnance 
and  ammunition  factories  on  the  Thames,  the  Elbe,  and  else- 


FLEEING   WITH   THE   AMBAN 

where,  as  well  as  battleship  agents,  armourers,  and  military 
engineers,  were  en  route  to  Peking,  the  Imperialist,  and  Nan- 
king, the  Republican,  capital.  Anxious  foreign  merchants  re- 
turning- in  haste  from  Europe  were  making  their  way  to 
Shanghai,  and  connoisseurs  and  curio  dealers  from  the  Seven 
Seas,  in  anticipation  of  a  second  Boxer  harvest,  were  hurrying 
to  Peking  to  be  in  time  for  the  loot.  The  figure  of  a  wild- 
eyed  French  correspondent  with  an  imagination  inflamed  by 
grotesque  ideas  of  Eastern  Asia  and  intolerant  of  everybody, 
completed,  but  was  not  necessary  to  complete,  this  remarkable 
company.  It  was  with  these  companions  and  in  these  cir- 
cumstances that  I  was  moving  to  a  point  of  juncture  with 
the  Manchu  refugee  from  Urga  and  his  disconsolate  company. 

The  Imperial  representative  at  Lhassa  in  Tibet,  as  well 
as  the  one  at  Urga  in  Mongolia,  besides  being  "Resident" 
is  also  called  "Amban."  I  knew  that  ambans'  flights  are  few 
and  far  between,  and  it  was  worth  while  knowing  their  cause, 
and  especially  the  cause  of  the  flight  of  San  Ta,  the  Amban 
from  Urga. 

The  drama  of  disorder  in  the  Buddhist  world  of  Central 
Asia  as  I  had  watched  it  from  Peking  was  like  this :  The 
Russians  and  Japanese  went  to  war  in  the  spring  of  1904, 
arousing  Eastern  Mongolia,  Manchuria,  and  China.  Great 
Britain  sent  a  military  column  into  the  forbidden  land  of 
Tibet,  arousing  China  and  Central  Asia's  Buddhist  world, 
sending  the  Talai  Lama — spiritual  head  of  Tibet  and  Mon- 
golia— fleeing  from  Lhassa,  his  capital,  to  Urga  and  arousing 
all  Mongolia.  Japan  successfully  invaded  Manchuria  in 
1905-6,  in  turn  arousing  Russia  and  Mongolia.  China  escorted 
the  Talai  Lama  back  to  Lhassa,  but  later  dispatched  a  military 
column  there  which  sent  him  fleeing  in  haste  to  India,  where 
he  remained  an  exile.  Because  of  their  Buddhistic  interests  at 
stake,  China's  act  alarmed  Great  Britain,  Russia,  and  Japan. 
The  Chinese  reformers  and  revolutionaries,  led  by  students 
educated  abroad,  brought  about  rebellion  and  republicanism, 
arousing  Tibet  and  Mongolia,  and  severing  their  allegiance  to 
the  declining  Manchu  Dynasty. 

These  events  consolidated  the  ideas  of  both  Russians  and 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

Mongols  respecting  Mongolia.  Mongolia  no  longer  had  a  bul- 
wark in  the  Manchus.  Russia  no  longer  had  in  the  Manchus 
even  a  weak  barrier  against  the  Japanese.  Mongolia  fearing 
everybody  but  conscious  that  she  had  never  been  defeated  or 
made  subservient,  had  to  take  an  independent  course,  though 
she  could  not  flee. 

The  princes  of  Northern  Mongolia  stated  that,  although 
they  would  accept  the  rule  of  their  Manchu  kinsmen,  they 
would  never  recognise  a  new  Chinese  Government  or  submit 
to  its  sway.  Russia  was  powerless  to  arrest  Japanese  expan- 
sion westward  along  her  frontier,  and  was  obliged,  by  her 
reasoning  and  policy,  to  devise  a  new  buffer  state  of  Outer 
Mongolia  in  order  to  complete  a  chain  of  buffer  states  con- 
tinuous from  the  Caspian  to  the  Amur.  As  time  went  on  the 
effect  of  these  ideas  at  Urga  aroused  San  Ta,  who  came  into 
conflict  with  the  lamas  a  year  before  the  time  of  which  I  am 
writing.  The  allegiance  of  the  lamas  was  tested  by  San  Ta, 
in  the  matter  of  tribute,  in  an  unusual  manner.  He  demanded 
of  the  lamas  that  his  Residency  should  be  supplied  with  horses 
from  the  herd  on  the  sacred  hill,  a  demand  outrageous  to  the 
ecclesiastics.  The  Mongols  may  be  said  to  live  on  horseback. 
The  horses  are  the  most  precious  of  all  their  animals.  The 
best  gift  which  a  Mongol  can  make  to  the  Church  and  to  his 
pontiff  is  a  noble  horse.  These  gifts,  most  of  them  from  the 
princes  of  Mongolia,  are  sacerdotal  in  character  and  at  least 
supposedly  remain  secluded  in  the  hallowed  precincts  con- 
nected with  the  pontifical  temples. 

The  Amban's  demand  resulted  in  an  attack  by  the  lamas 
upon  the  Amban's  followers,  who  were  badly  beaten.  The 
Amban,  perceiving  his  mistake,  arranged  in  Peking  a  sus- 
pension of  the  punishment  for  the  lamas  decreed  by  the 
Throne,  and  secured  their  formal  forgiveness  for  them.  The 
lamas,  however,  nursed  their  anger  through  a  series  of  smaller 
antagonisms  until  the  declaration  of  the  independence  or 
autonomy  of  all  Outer  Mongolia.  This  was  the  accumulated 
anger  from  which  San  Ta  fled,  and  against  which  he  begged 
the  protection  of  Russia. 

Disturbed  international  relations  on  the  Mongolian-Siberian 

4 


FLEEING   WITH   THE   AMBAN 

frontier,  and  complications  with  Russia  and  Japan,  preceded 
the  rebellion  in  China.  Disputed  boundary  lines  were  among 
those  questions  which  led  to  the  declaration  of  the  independ- 
ence of  Outer  Mongolia,  the  fringe  of  khanates  or  principal- 
ities touching  Manchuria  and  Siberia.  The  Japanese  were 
the  first  to  cross  China's  border  and  raise  China's  boundary 
questions  in  an  acute  form.  They  selected  to  cross  at  Chien- 
tao,  a  region  north  of  the  Tumen  River,  in  Eastern  Manchuria, 
abreast  of  Korea.  The  Manchurian  Viceroyal  Administration 
at  Mukden  then  immediately  took  up  the  whole  question  of 
boundaries  in  Manchuria  and  inaugurated  surveys.  It  bought 
at  one  purchase  eighty-five  thousand  taels'  (about  $60,000.00) 
worth  of  surveying  instruments,  though  it  had  no  qualified 
surveyors  to  use  them. 

Japan's  aggression  in  Chien-tao  was  settled  by  an  agree- 
ment by  which  Japan  remained  in  Chien-tao,  and  then  the 
boundary  questions  with  Russia  on  the  Manchurian-Siberian 
frontier  were  taken  up.  The  Imperial  Government  at  Peking 
not  only  took  up  the  boundaries  on  the  Japanese-Russian 
frontiers  but  those  of  the  whole  Empire,  and  ordered  the 
viceroys  and  governors  of  the  provinces  to  conduct  surveys 
and  establish  lines  of  demarcation  on  its  frontiers,  and  monu- 
ments to  mark  them.  The  contentions  over  these  questions 
appeared  interminable,  and  the  disputes  affected  regions  ex- 
tending from  Tongking  on  the  south-east,  through  Burmah, 
India,  Turkestan,  and  Siberia,  to  Korea,  along  a  line  perhaps 
eight  thousand  miles  in  length. 

In  1910  Russia  threatened  to  move  troops  into  Hi,  in 
Western  Mongolia,  to  protect  what  she  called  her  frontier 
rights.  There  was  a  boundary  question  on  the  west,  in  North- 
ern Hi.  There  was  another  where  the  Trans-Siberian  Rail- 
way joins  the  Chinese  Eastern  Railway  entering  Manchuria, 
and  here  Russia  claimed  the  Manchurian  town  of  Manchuli. 
A  gradual  development  of  the  regions  along  the  Russian- 
Chinese  and  Japanese-Chinese  frontiers,  due  to  the  expansion 
of  Western  civilisation  among  Asiatic  peoples,  was  going  on, 
so  that  these  questions  arose  as  a  matter  of  course.  But  there 
are  several  race  movements  that  account  for  these  questions. 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

Among  them  is  the  rise  and  regeneration  of  the  Buriat  Mon- 
gols, whose  ancient  Capital  is  at  Selinginsk,  on  the  Selenga, 
in  Siberia,  below  Lake  Baikal.  A  national  movement  assumed 
form  and  dimensions  here  a  decade  or  more  ago,  and  this 
branch  of  the  Mongols  established  a  newspaper  and  a  print- 
ing plant  for  making  books.  The  influence  of  the  Buriat 
Mongols  extended  not  only  to  the  members  of  their  race  in 
Siberia  but  in  Mongolia.  Buriat  Mongols  as  officers  in  the 
Russian  Navy  and  in  the  land  forces  distinguished  themselves 
in  the  Russo-Japanese  War.  In  civil  positions  the  Buriats 
were  found  in  the  Russian  service  throughout  Eastern  Asia. 
Buriat  women  had  married  well  among  Siberians,  and  Buriat 
men  everywhere  found  equality  in  Siberia. 

The  relation  between  Russians  and  Mongols  has  been  one 
of  fraternity,  which  is  nearly  the  opposite  of  the  relationship 
which  has  existed  between  Chinese  and  Mongols  from  time 
immemorial.  In  Urga  thirty  td  fifty  years  ago,  according  to 
Gilmour,  the  life  of  the  Chinese  engaged  in  trade  there  was 
one  of  self-imposed  exile,  wherein  they  were  prevented  by 
Chinese  law  from  bringing  their  wives  and  families  with  them, 
and  were  unable  to  visit  their  native  homes  oftener  than  once 
in  every  five  or  ten  years.  At  that  time  Mongolia  was  to 
China  a  kind  of  neutral  zone,  or  what  in  Western  parlance  is 
called  a  buffer  state.  China  wished  to  keep  her  own  people 
attached  to  their  homes,  and  pursued  a  policy  of  encouraging 
celibacy  and  ecclesiasticism  in  Mongolia,  in  order  to  guard 
against  military  regeneration  among  her  ancient  Tartar  ene- 
mies and  persecutors,  keeping  them  enervated  by  religious 
pursuits.  China's  judgment  was  not  ample.  She  made  the 
mistake  of  miscalculating  the  state  of  the  outside  world,  and 
failed  to  apprehend  the  importance  of  Russia  and  her  future 
influence  upon  Eastern  Asia — Mongolia  in  particular.  China's 
policy,  while  it  weakened  the  Mongolian  or  Tartar  danger, 
gradually  prepared  Mongolia  for  Russian  influence  and  in- 
vasion, and  the  probable  absorption  of  Mongolia  by  Russia. 

The  Manchus  and  the  whole  intellectual  aristocracy  of 
China  regarded  the  Mongols  as  a  bulwark  of  China  and  of 
the  Manchu  Throne.  The  Russians  courted  the  Mongols  so 

6 


FLEEING   WITH    THE   AMBAN 

that  they  might  ultimately  become  a  bulwark  against  the 
Japanese,  and  a  bulwark  of  the  Manchu  Dynasty.  The  or- 
ganisation of  the  Mongols  into  a  military  force  on  horse- 
back with  a  large  part  of  their  ancient  military  efficiency  was 
a  dream  of  both  the  Russians  and  the  Japanese.  At  least  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  Mongol  horsemen  await  this  en- 
deavour. Each  of  these  nations  shrinks  from  being  suspected 
of  it  by  the  other.  The  knowledge  of  this  possibility  and  of 
Russian  and  Japanese  aims  aroused  the  Chinese  military  with 
hopes  of  anticipating  these  two  arch-enemies  of  China  and 
consummating  this  magnificent  plan  as  a  patriotic  Chinese 
achievement,  thus  converting  Mongolia's  weakness  into  a  wall 
of  strength  essential  to  China's  safety. 

All  this  country  was  a  theatre  of  political  and  religious 
strife  wonderful  with  that  machinery  known  as  modern  prog- 
ress which  regenerates  races  and  has  aroused  the  Mongols' 
after  eight  centuries  of  somnolence.  Through  this  region 
robed  in  snow  and  rigid  with  cold,  San  Ta  the  Manchu,  hav- 
ing failed  to  retrieve  Mongolian  allegiance  for  his  Emperor, 
and  thrown  upon  the  mercy  of  his  Russian  opponents,  was 
making  his  way,  himself  a  phenomenon  of  these  changes 
marking  the  advance  of  Western  civilisation.  Convoyed  by 
Russian  couriers  and  Frontier  Guards  over  the  Kiachta  Post 
Road,  thirty  persons,  men,  women,  and  children,  bundled  in 
felt  and  fur,  drawn  in  sledges  down  the  frosty  Selenga  and 
through  the  frozen  forests  on  its  banks,  reached  the  railway 
station  at  Verkneudinsk.  A  moment  later,  the  dark  and  cold 
changed  to  the  light,  warmth,  and  luxurious  fittings  of  the 
Trans-Siberian  train.  Here  was  at  his  disposal  the  railway 
carriage  of  the  Governor-General  of  Trans-Baikalia,  and  of 
the  Russian  Chinese  Eastern  Railway,  and  into  it  he  slipped, 
with  the  remnants  of  his  domestic  and  ambassadorial  belong- 
ings. 

Lights  burned  in  the  station  windows.  The  samovar 
steamed  in  the  buffet,  giving  out  an  endless  chain  of  glasses 
of  tea — this  great  drink  of  Russians.  Cauldrons  of  hot  soup 
— borsch  and  tschi — filled  the  buffet  with  appetising  vapours. 
Travellers  passed  backwards  and  forwards  from  the  train, 

7 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

itself  emitting  clouds  of  steam,  suffused  in  their  ascent  with 
reflected  light.  San  Ta,  the  defeated  and  humiliated  Amban, 
heeded  little  of  this  as,  solaced  only  by  his  family,  he  shrank 
into  the  luxurious  seclusion  of  his  salon,  a  mere  creature  of 
fate. 


CHAPTER  II 
FLEEING    WITH    THE    AMBAN    OF    MONGOLIA— Concluded 

IF  ambans'  flights  are  rare,  rarer  still  are  the  opportunities 
of  a  war  correspondent  to  witness  one.  Such  adventures 
belong  to  the  dead  centuries.  I  found  it  hard  to  realise 
that  this  was  happening  in  the  present,  that  we  ourselves  were 
not  messengers  or  envoys  of  a  forgotten  era.  In  my  mind, 
San  Ta,  the  unsuccessful  envoy  of  the  baby  Emperor  and  rep- 
resentative of  the  decrepit  Manchu  Dynasty,  linked  his  name 
with  all  the  political  agents  in  history,  from  those  of  Genghis 
Khan,  the  Magician  of  Empire,  to  those  of  Japan's  Mutsuhito, 
the  Napoleon  of  Asia. 

Even  as  I  got  off  the  train  at  the  Manchurian  frontier  sta- 
tion, Manchuli,  where  I  was  confronted  by  China's  modern 
customs  examination,  I  had  not  readjusted  myself  into  my  role 
of  a  modern  war  correspondent.  I  looked  about  for  some 
Chinese  with  whom  to  talk,  and  found  one  in  the  newsdealer 
in  the  buffet. 

"How's  business?"  I  asked. 

Recovering  his  astonishment  at  hearing  his  own  language 
from  a  traveller  who  had  just  crossed  the  frontier,  he  replied : 

"Passable."     He  then  politely  inquired: 

"What  nationality  are  you?" 

"He's  not  a  Russian,"  said  a  Chinese  waiter  in  the  buffet, 
who,  with  equal  interest,  had  stopped  to  hear  the  sound  of 
his  native  tongue. 

"Certainly  not,"  replied  the  first,  and  then  asked:  "Are 
you  English?" 

"Guess  again,"  said  I. 

"American?" 

"Pshaw,  don't  you  know  a  native  when  you  see  him?" 

He  laughed.  "You're  not  a  Chinese,"  said  he  in  disgust; 
"you  have  no  queue." 

9 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

"No,  I  have  no  queue,  but  we  don't  all  have  queues  now- 
adays." 

"You  have  no  beard." 

"I'm  not  old  enough;  besides,  fashions  are  not  the  same 
now." 

"What  is  your  honourable  age?" 

"You  say." 

"Fifty  years." 

"Too  much.  You  don't  know  a  Chinese  well  enough  to 
recognise  him  or  tell  his  age !  You  must  be  a  Russian." 

He  gave  a  disgusted  laugh  and  said: 

"You're  too  tall  for  a  Chinese." 

"I'm  no  taller  than  a  Manchurian." 

"Your  colour  is  different." 

"I'll  tell  you,"  said  I.  "If  I'm  not  true  Chinese,  I've  lived 
in  the  Capital — Peking — twelve  years,  and  I'm  an  American, 
and  we  Americans  and  Chinese  are  nearly  the  same,  isn't 
that  so  ?  " 

"America  is  a  good  country  and  a  friend  of  China." 

"Everybody  says  so,  and  I  hear  now  China  wishes  a  Gov- 
ernment like  ours.  Have  you  heard  any  news  ?  " 

"In  the  South  there  is  trouble." 

"Have  you  any  war  here?" 

"No,  all  is  peaceful." 

"Are  there  any  soldiers?" 

"Yes,  there  are  some  Manchu  soldiers,  and  at  the  first 
station  to  the  east  there  are  more.  They  watch  the  people 
and  the  officials  and  keep  them  in  order." 

I  also  learned  of  him  that  the  news  of  the  rise  of  the 
Mongols  at  Urga  had  not  reached  Manchuli.  However,  Mon- 
gol dignitaries  were  making  frequent  journeys  to  the  "great 
Russian  official"  at  Harbin. 

Many  Mongol  agents  and  envoys  pass  Manchuli  en  route 
to  Harbin  as  well  as  to  Mukden  and  Peking.  Unless  they 
come  from  Urga  or  farther  west,  they  always  take  train  at 
Oloviannaya  or  Borzia,  in  Trans-Baikalia,  a  short  distance 
from  the  frontier.  They  supply  a  fine  colour  note  of  orange, 
purple,  and  red  to  the  drab  of  Russia  and  the  cold  indigo  of 

10 


FLEEING   WITH   THE    AMBAN 

the  Chinese  dress.  Though  uncouth,  they  are  not  slovenly, 
like  the  Siberians.  There  is  no  denying  it,  the  Siberians  are 
certainly  frowsy,  and  in  the  matter  of  customs,  manners,  and 
dress  are  at  a  disadvantage  with  their  neighbours  the  Chinese. 
After  seeing  from  Siberian  trains  poorly  dressed,  unkempt, 
and  slouchy  Siberians,  the  Chinese  of  Manchuria  seem  like 
cultured  gentlefolk.  The  Chinese  peasant  has  an  attitude,  a 
gait  and  an  air,  with  his  own  standardised,  sealed,  and  stamped 
manners  and  intelligence,  which  gives  Chinese  society  the 
character  of  real  civilisation. 

Siberia  to  the  Western  mind  spells  gloom  in  the  syllables 
snow,  night,  and  exile.  It  stands  for  the  mediaeval  mosaic 
comprehended  in  the  word  Russia.  But  in  Manchuria  winter 
is  brilliant  with  sunlight.  The  snow-clouds  have  to  do  their 
work  quickly  and  move  on.  The  snow  disappears,  absorbed  by 
the  dry  air.  All  is  light,  vigour,  and  promise,  expressive  of 
the  modern,  republican,  revolutionary  China. 

The  bizarre  gathering  of  races,  allegiances,  and  person- 
alities represented  in  this  Russian  train  coming  through  Si- 
beria, received  added  emphasis  by  entering  Chinese  territory. 
The  "Five  Continents"  passed  into  China.  An  inner  curtain 
lifted,  showing  China  the  real  stage  of  the  drama.  Revolu- 
tionary complications  began.  Trains  left  going  eastward, 
carrying  rebels  en  route  to  Harbin  to  beg  munitions  of  war 
from  the  Russian  authorities  in  the  Railway  Administration. 
The  Mongol  princes  know  that  the  segregation  of  Mongolia 
is  the  dearest  wish  of  Russia's  political  agents  at  Harbin  and 
in  St.  Petersburg,  who  regard  the  independence  or  inviolability 
of  Mongolia  as  a  political  necessity  of  Russia.  It  would  con- 
stitute a  barrier  against  Japan,  and  also  against  the  demoral- 
ising frontier  influences  and  dangers  of  a  too-progressive 
China.  The  Mongols  were  followed  by  other  Mongols  loyal 
to  the  Manchu  Throne  and  hopeful  of  preserving  the  Chinese 
union.  The  Russian  officials  in  Manchuria  and  the  local 
Chinese  officials  were  kept  busy  with  the  essential  formalities 
of  this  exciting  traffic.  A  Chinese  official  took  a  train  leav- 
ing in  advance  of  the  Amban's  party,  but  whether  or  not  to 
escape  the  awkwardness  of  meeting  a  Manchu  dignitary,  and 

ii 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

the  responsibilities  and  embarrassments  of  aiding  his  enemy, 
could  only  be  suspected.  His  gendarme  escort  at  the  door  of 
his  closed  coupe  was  loath  to  talk. 

There  was  yet  no  revolution  in  Northern  Manchuria,  where 
the  Manchu  soldiers,  according  to  the  station  agent  at  Man- 
chuli,  had  "kept  the  Chinese  conspirators  straight."  These 
soldiers  watched  for  evidences  of  rebellion,  so  as  to  prevent 
on  this  railway  line  of  Russia's,  what  was  most  feared  by 
China — further  complications  with  Russia,  which  would  also 
mean  the  same  with  Japan. 

The  Amban,  on  reaching  Manchuria,  appeared  deserted  and 
left  to  the  mercies  of  these  Manchu  troops.  In  the  light  of 
day  his  suite  was  seen  with  its  servants  and  baggage  crowded 
into  its  coupes.  The  principal  members  of  the  party  got  out 
at  Manchuli  to  take  the  air,  to  have  a  look  at  their  native  soil, 
and,  like  myself,  to  see  what  was  going  on.  Among  them 
was  a  young  man  believed  to  be  a  brother  'of  the  Manchu 
Prince  Kung.  I  wondered  if  the  Throne  at  Peking  had  been 
using  the  younger  members  of  the  Manchu  Imperial  Clan 
among  the  Mongolian  khanates  to  win  them  back  after  the 
furore  of  the  Talai  Lama's  visit.  The  members  of  the  Am- 
ban's  suite,  in  groups  here  and  there,  kept  their  own  counsel, 
talked  in  low  tones  among  themselves  and  were  naturally 
loath  to  talk  with  others  of  experiences  which  represented 
their  official  shortcomings  and  failures,  and  of  a  voyage  of 
humiliation.  Fellow-passengers  refrained  from  venturing  any 
overtures  in  this  direction. 

The  Russian  train  at  this  moment  represented  an  imme- 
morial division  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  North  and  South,  now 
Empire  and  Republic.  It  was  Republican  at  the  fore,  Imperi- 
alist at  the  rear.  Another  situation  developed  when  the  train 
entered  Manchuria.  The  Empire,  represented  by  San  Ta, 
was  on  its  own  ground ;  the  Republic,  represented  by  the  two 
young  Revolutionists,  was  in  hostile  territory. 

The  young  men  became  quite  nervous,  moving  about  the 
fore  part  of  the  train  and  finally  isolating  themselves  in  the 
company  of  foreigners,  where  they  felt  more  secure  and  dis- 
cussed in  their  native  tongue  what  was  of  greatest  concern  to 


FLEEING    WITH   THE   AMBAN 

them,  the  plunge  they  were  taking  into  their  disturbed  coun- 
try. No  one  in  the  train,  except  San  Ta,  knew  what  had  been 
happening  in  China  since  this  train  had  left  Moscow.  There 
was  no  precise  knowledge  of  the  condition  of  Manchuria. 

Penetrating  farther  and  farther  into  this  region,  still  out- 
wardly loyal  to  the  Manchus,  and  in  company  with  representa- 
tives of  the  Throne,  the  nervousness  of  the  young  Revolution- 
ists increased.  The  revolutionary  party  known  as  "Young 
China,"  to  which  they  belonged,  though  small,  had  for  ten 
years  been  preparing  for  a  revolt  which  was  to  overthrow 
the  ancient  Imperial  Government  and  establish  the  rule  of 
the  people.  They  now  understood  how  this  had  come  about 
in  their  absence,  and  talked  of  the  achievements  of  their  fel- 
low-students in  the  remote  province  of  Szechuan,  in  Septem- 
ber, 1911.  These  latter  had  overthrown  the  Provincial  Gov- 
ernment, defeated  and  beheaded  the  brother  of  the  now  Vice- 
roy of  Manchuria,  a  man  who  had  been  one  of  the  most 
tyrannical,  most  bloody,  and  most  feared  of  China's  generals. 

The  great  event,  however,  had  been  the  establishing  of 
the  Republic  of  China  at  Wuchang,  November  9,  1911,  by  Li 
Yuan-hung,  to  whom  one  of  the  young  men  said  he  was  sec- 
retary. This  fact  he  afterward  repeated  with  caution.  The 
knowledge  among  the  passengers  in  the  train  that  they  had 
with  them  the  secretary  of  the  Chinese  President  and  War 
Minister,  swayed  their  vacillating  interest  heavily  in  favour  of 
the  Republic.  This  calabash  Government  of  three  months' 
growth  now  claimed  fourteen  of  the  eighteen  provinces  of 
China  proper,  with  three  rival  leaders  from  whom  it  was  im- 
possible to  pick  the  winner. 

The  boys  were  very  loyal  to  their  leader  Li  Yuan-hung, 
were  against  Sun  Yat-sen,  whom  their  chief,  Li,  had  dis- 
owned as  a  force  in  the  revolt  at  Wuchang;  and  as  for  the 
other  leader,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  they  looked  upon  him  as  a 
dangerous  man. 

Simultaneous  with  the  rising  interest  and  excitement,  there 
was  in  the  minds  of  the  passengers  a  recollection  of  the  events 
of  1911  that  formed  this  calabash  Government.  There  was 
the  successful  revolt  in  the  province  of  Szechuan,  September 

13 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

14;  the  Throne's  appeal  to  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  October  14,  to 
reunite  the  country;  the  assassination  of  Feng  Shan,  one  of 
the  two  foremost  Manchu  generals,  October  24;  the  rebellion 
at  Hankow  and  Wuchang,  October  25-29 ;  the  revolt  in  Shensi, 
October  25,  and  the  battle  and  bloody  destruction  of  Hankow 
following;  the  secession  of  Shanghai,  November  3;  the  seces- 
sion of  Kuangtung,  and  the  declaration  of  the  Republic  of 
China  at  Wuchang,  November  9;  the  nearly  simultaneous 
secession  of  Shantung,  November  14,  and  Central  Manchuria ; 
the  evacuation  of  Nanking  by  the  Imperialists,  December  i ; 
the  abdication  of  Prince  Chun,  the  Regent  of  the  Empire, 
December  6;  the  recognition  of  the  rebellion  by  the  Throne 
and  its  overtures  for  terms  of  compromise,  December  18;  the 
recognition  of  the  revolutionary  party  by  France,  Germany, 
Great  Britain,  Japan,  Russia,  and  the  United  States,  Decem- 
ber 20. 

The  boys,  too,  were  well  acquainted  with  these  events, 
which  they  had  followed  in  the  European  papers.  They  were 
well  acquainted  with  the  fact  that  the  Republic  sustained  a  set- 
back. General  Li  Yuan-hung  had  been  defeated  at  the  battle 
of  Hankow,  which  was  to  pass  into  history  as  the  only  battle 
of  the  rebellion.  He  had  been  unable  to  maintain  discipline 
among  his  troops  or  to  defend  the  City  of  Hankow,  which  had 
been  destroyed  in  a  festival  of  carnage.  The  province  of 
Shantung,  partly  on  account  of  the  reverses  Li  Yuan-hung 
had  sustained  and  partly  because  it  had  foreign  questions  with 
Germany,  had  reconsidered  its  hasty  secession  and  apologeti- 
cally rejoined  the  Empire.  Manchuria,  whose  administration 
and  affairs  might  be  taken  over  by  Japan  in  twenty-four  hours, 
and  instantly  invaded  by  Russia,  was  unable  to  make  good  its 
hasty  scheme  of  independence  and  fell  back  into  a  position 
of  status  quo,  resuming  connections  with  the  Peking  Govern- 
ment. Li  Yuan-hung,  who  had  not  yet  been  succeeded  by 
Sun  Yat-sen  as  Provisional  President,  with  the  Capital  at 
Nanking,  was  the  arch-rebel  of  China.  He  was  the  Chieftain 
of  these  two  boys,  which  was  the  crux  of  the  situation  for 
them.  All  China,  with  its  internal  and  external  complications, 
and  which  had  been  called  "The  Sick  Man  of  Asia"  for  a 

14 


FLEEING    WITH    THE    AMBAN 

quarter  of  a  century,  was  like  twenty  Turkeys  rolled  into  one. 
We,  for  the  time  being,  were  in  the  middle  of  this  confusion. 
"Japan  is  helping  the  Manchus,"  said  the  secretary  of  the 
Chinese  President  and  War  Minister;  "didn't  you  hear  the 

J  * 

foreign  customs  agent  at  Manchuli  say  that  Viceroy  Chao  had 
cut  off  the  heads  of  sixty  of  our  men  at  Mukden  in  the  last 
two  weeks?" 

"That's  like  his  brother  in  Szechuan,  who  is  hated  by 
everybody  because  he  is  so  bloody,"  said  the  other. 

"One  wouldn't  think  that  old  Father  Chao  could  be  such 
a  traitor  to  his  own  people." 

"No,  but  that  is  not  the  worst.  If  he  is  working  against 
the  Republic,  it  will  be  the  same  as  turning  the  Three  Eastern 
Provinces  [Manchuria]  over  to  the  Japanese.  Japan  is  very 
treacherous.  She  can  never  be  relied  on.  Twenty  thousand 
of  our  students  have  studied  in  Japan  and  the  Japanese  pre- 
tend to  be  our  friends.  They  use  both  sides.  They  are  worse 
than  all  the  other  foreigners  together." 

"We  cannot  go  into  Feng-tien"  [the  Japanese  sphere  of 
Manchuria] . 

"No,  it's  no  place  for  us,  if  the  Japanese  are  arresting  our 
people 'and  turning  them  over  to  Viceroy  Chao.  If  we  wish  to 
keep  our  heads  on  our  shoulders,"  said  one,  talking  rapidly, 
"we  had  better  stay  in  this  train  and  go  to  Vladivostok,  where 
we  will  be  safe  on  Russian  soil  and  can  go  by  foreign  steamer 
to  Shanghai  at  the  first  oportunity.  The  Russians  are  better 
than  the  Japanese — at  least  they  don't  interfere  between  the 
Chinese  and  Manchus." 

The  conversation  of  the  young  Revolutionists  showed  that 
they  had  not  been  less  active  in  inquiring  for  news  at  the  fron- 
tier and  along  the  line  than  had  I.  Manchuria  was  the  land 
of  the  Manchus,  with  a  considerable  Manchu  population  and 
a  soil  sacred  as  the  burial-place  of  the  ancestors  of  the  Dy- 
nasty. Dominated  by  Russia  and  Japan,  complicated  in  all 
its  affairs  by  their  interference  and  participation,  it  was  very 
debatable  ground  for  the  young  Revolutionists. 

As  the  train  approached  Harbin  they  were  seen  standing 
in  the  vestibule  still  discussing  their  plans,  but  they  had  de- 

15 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

cided  to  abandon  the  Japanese  route  south  through  Manchuria, 
fearing  possible  arrest,  and  to  go  by  Vladivostok  to  Shanghai. 
We  separated  at  Harbin.  Later,  when  their  train  had  re- 
crossed  the  Manchurian-Russian  frontier,  into  the  Ussuri 
Province,  and  I  knew  they  were  safe,  I  sent  a  Press  telegram 
announcing  their  escape. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  MONGOL   REBELS 

I  ARRIVED  in  Harbin,  Russia's  big,  bedraggled,  war- 
maimed  Manchurian  city  stretched  on  the  bottom  lands 
and  bluffs  of  the  Sungari,  and  flaunting  its  coarse  and 
tawdry  splendours  in  the  winter  sun.  After  the  Russo- 
Japanese  War  it  received  the  Russian  political  mantle  that 
rested  on  Port  Arthur  when  the  latter  was  Russian,  vying 
with  Peking,  where  the  Imperial  Russian  Legation  complained 
of  its  pretensions  in  international  politics. 

The  whole  Japanese,  Russian,  and  Chinese  frontiers  in 
Eastern  Asia  were  in  a  state  of  widespread  intrigue,  not  only 
involving  Russia  and  Japan,  but  their  allies  and  all  other  in- 
terested nations,  with  China.  Harbin  was  again  a  Russian 
centre  as  it  had  been  before  the  Russo-Japanese  War,  and 
Manchuria  was  again  demonstrating  its  vitality  as  China's  and 
the  Eastern  World's  great,  unsolvable  political  problem. 
Whereas  before  it  was  a  closed  Russian  capital,  the  centre 
of  Russia's  railway  and  industrial  interests  in  Manchuria,  it 
had  since — with  all  the  Chinese  regions  to  the  north  of  it — 
been  invaded  by  the  Japanese,  who  brought  with  them  the 
representatives  of  all  the  Great  Powers  to  watch  its  entang- 
ling and  disentangling  processes. 

Russia's  course  in  Mongolia  had  been  watched  by  Japan  as 
its  processes  unfolded  in  the  cities  and  provinces  from  Kash- 
gar  to  Kuldja,  Tarbagatai  and  Kobdo,  from  Ulliasutai  to 
Urga  and  Kerulon,  and  from  Tonanfu  to  the  Tumen  River. 
She  had  sent  a  civil  official  to  visit  the  regions  between  the 
Baikal  and  Urga  when  Russia  had  sent  a  new  consul — a  mili- 
tary officer — to  the  latter.  Japan  had  taken  special  interest 
in  the  fact  that  Russia  had  sent  an  experienced  consul  trained 
at  Harbin  in  the  ramifications  of  Manchurian  politics  to  Ulli- 
asutai. The  state  of  political  suspicion  existing  between  Japan 
and  Russia  was  shown  by  the  detention  and  expulsion  from  the 

17 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

Russian  province  Ussurri  of  a  high  Japanese  officer  who  had 
crossed  that  frontier  to  the  north  of  Lake  Hanka. 

The  Japanese  General  Staff  sent  an  officer  of  rank  in  uni- 
form openly  to  explore  the  Mongolian-Russian  frontier.  He 
left  Peking  in  July,  1911,  taking  the  road  across  the  Gobi 
Desert  to  Urga  and  turning  westward  to  Ulliassutai  and  con- 
tinuing westward  through  Kobdo  to  the  Altai  Mountains, 
which  he  reached  October  4.  Leaving  Mongolia  (Hi)  at  Tar- 
bagatai,  he  returned  by  the  river  Irtish  and  the  Trans-Siberian 
Railway,  completing  his  observations  of  the  frontier  from 
the  Siberian  side.  Japan's  access  to  the  Russian  frontier  from 
Mongolia  is  one  which  Russia  would  like  to  deny,  but  her 
officials  receive  Japan's  travellers  with  at  least  outward  hos- 
pitality. Every  servant  of  Russia  is  a  uniformed  officer,  in 
Imperial  quarters,  equipped  with  office,  soldiers,  and  all  the 
machinery  of  state,  which  in  such  events  turns  all  its  wheels. 

The  Japanese  wonder  what  on  such  occasions  may  be  be- 
hind this  hospitality. 

"I  do  not  know,"  said  one  of  these  Japanese  travellers 
who  had  crossed  Mongolia,  "what  is  in  their  minds  and  hearts 
when  they  receive  me  with  such  cordiality.  Their  hospitality 
is  intimate  and  faultless.  I  was  taken  aback  by  being  asked 
why  I  had  not  been  there  before." 

The  motive  behind  the  Japanese  General  Staff  in  Tokio, 
acting  with  the  knowledge  and  consent  of  the  Japanese  Gov- 
ernment in  thus  sending  an  official  party  into  the  Russian 
sphere,  can  confidently  be  stated  to  be  that  of  moral  effect 
upon  Russia's  Mongolian  politics,  coupled  with  the  intention  to 
miss  no  opportunity  of  discovering  what  is  new  in  those  inten- 
tions. Japan's  agents  and  officials  on  the  -continent  were 
aroused  by  the  reports  of  Russia's  doings  along  the  frontier  to 
a  pitch  of  unusual  alertness  and  considerable  excitement. 
They  were  afraid  that  Japan's  expansion  westward  was  al- 
ready blocked  by  this  new  "Independency"  of  Outer  Mon- 
golia, which  appeared  to  destroy  Japan's  hope  of  crossing  the 
Kinghan  Mountains.  They  alleged  that  the  lamas  in  their 
revolt  at  Urga  had  not  acted  without  suggestion  from  Russia, 
and  intimated  that  Russia  wished  these  regions  for  her  own. 

18 


THE    MONGOL    REBELS 

This  was  Japan's  side  of  the  question.  The  Russians  were 
equally  alert,  enterprising,  excited,  and  frank.  Many  agents 
of  the  Czar  whom  I  had  known  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the 
Manchurian  drama,  and  in  fact  whose  personal  fortunes  I 
had  shared  in  the  time  of  its  greatest  tragedies,  were  still  upon 
the  scene  at  Harbin,  still  struggling  with  this  question,  on  the 
one  side  with  Japan,  and  on  the  other  with  China  and  the 
Powers.  We  had  been  comrades  off  and  on  for  the  past 
twelve  years,  studying  the  same  problems.  We  admitted  our 
awe  at  the  possibilities  of  the  Present. 

With  the  Russians,  Mongolia  was  the  prime  question  of 
the  moment.  The  headquarters  of  the  Czar's  agents  was  a 
busy  one,  somewhat  like  the  scene  here  during  the  Russo- 
Japanese  War.  The  interpreters  and  translators  of  Mongo- 
lian were  most"  in  evidence  as  I  entered.  Long  dispatches 
from  Mongol  princes  reciting  the  aspirations  of  Mongolians 
to  escape  from  complications  with  the  Manchus  and  the  Chi- 
nese Republic  were  being  translated.  The  Mongol  rebels  who 
preceded  us  from  Manchuli,  when  they  arrived  here,  asked 
the  Russians  to  supply  them  at  once  with  arms  sufficient  for 
one  hundred  thousand  infantry  and  fifty  thousand  cavalry. 

General  X diplomatically  told  them  he  had  no  arms  not 

required  by  the  railway  guards  (Frontier  Guards)  and  that 
Russia  could  not  send  arms  out  of  the  railway  zone. 

"Not  much  is  known  of  Mongolia,"  said  General  X , 

handing  me  a  Russian  cigarette,  and  laying  down  before  me 
a  long  dispatch  from  Eastern  Mongolia,  written  in  the  curious 
and  beautiful  characters  of  the  Mongolian  language.  "It  has 
a  religious  government,  with  many  princely  divisions.  Our 
people  have  studied  it  perhaps  more  than  others,  but  very  im- 
perfectly. The  people  are  nomads  and  like  to  be  left  alone, 
and  have  consequently  been  somewhat  disturbed  at  seeing  the 
Chinese  increasing  in  Mongolia  and  at  the  prospect  now  of 
having  a  new  Government  over  them.  Russia  takes  a  greater 
interest  than  other  nations  in  Mongolian  affairs,  perhaps  be- 
cause of  Russia's  special  rights  by  a  treaty  with  China.  Russia 
has  had  a  long  intercourse  with  Mongolia  through  trade. 

"Personally,  as  you  know,"  said  I,  "I  appreciate  these  facts 

19 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

very  fully.  But  I  would  like  to  ask  you  about  the  charges 
so  often  made  by  your  rivals  regarding  the  political  intentions 
of  Russia  in  Mongolia." 

"I  know  what  you  want,"  said  he,  "and  I  will  tell  you. 
Russia  does  not  want  Mongolia.  She  is  accused  of  wanting 
to  take  Mongolia,  but  Russia  wants  Mongolia  to  be  a  buffer 
state,  like  Afghanistan,  to  remain  between  Russia  and  China." 

"How  can  Mongolia  become  a  buffer  state?  I  understand 
that  it  is  only  ecclesiastics  at  Urga  who  have  declared  their 
autonomy." 

"Yes,"  said  .he,  "but  that  is  important  for  the  reason  that 
the  Talai  Lama  whom  China  has  exiled  and  the  Talama  at 
Urga  who  is  the  third  highest  in  the  world,  have  the  power 
to  unite  the  Mongol  princes  in  support  of  Mongolian  inde- 
pendence." 

As  we  talked  I  had  in  mind  two  interesting  Russian  dis- 
patches emanating  from  these  regions  which  in  their  official 
form  as  they  appeared  in  St.  Petersburg  in  the  Russian  Gov- 
ernment organ,  one  closely  following  the  other,  were  in  sub- 
stance as  follows : 

"A  Mongol  deputation  has  indicated  in  Government  circles 
Mongolia's  desire  to  live  under  Russian  protection.  The  Gov- 
ernment must  not  hesitate  to  recognise  the  Independence  of 
Mongolia." 

The  second  dispatch  was  dated  Harbin  and  ran  thus : 

I 

"The  Mongol  princes  of  North  Mongolia  have  informed 
General  Horuat  that  although  they  submit  to  the  activity  of 
China  [respecting  Mongolia]  and  recognise  the  Manchu 
Dynasty,  yet  they  will  never  recognise  a  new,  Chinese  Govern- 
ment [i.e.  non-Manchu],  or  submit  to  its  rule.  The  only 
obstacle  to  shaking  off  the  yoke  of  China  is  lack  of  rifles. 
They  have  money  in  plenty.  Among  many  capable  Mongols 
in  the  army  there  are  120  of  the  rank  of  Commanders.  Many 
Mongols  serve  in  the  Manchu  Imperial  Guard  and  are  ready 
to  desert.  If  the  Mongols  cannot  alone  oppose  the  new  Gov- 

20 


THE    MONGOL    REBELS 

ernment  in  China,  then  Mongolia  is  ready  to  accept  Russia's 
sceptre." 

I  was  startled  with  the  first  realisation  of  the  primary 
political  issue  between  Russia  and  China  thus  exposed  in  this 
interview.  It  is  the  question  between  these  two  great  coun- 
tries as  to  whether  Mongolia  is  an  integral  state  of  the 
Chinese  Empire  or  an  independent  political  federation  with  its 
supreme  ecclesiastical  government  under  China's  suzerainty. 
If  the  latter  could  be  established  by  Russia  and  Mongolia 
could  make  good  her  claims  of  autonomy,  Russian  rights  in 
Mongolia  and  Russian  authority  would  be  equal  to  those  of 
China.  The  question  in  my  mind  was  whether  this  was  not 
de  facto  the  case  at  the  moment  and  whether  Russia  had  not 
already  succeeded  in  eliminating  all  other  Powers  from  Mon- 
golia. The  first  thing  which  Japan  did  in  her  process  of  an- 
nexing Korea  was  to  set  up  the  principle  that  Korea  was  not 
a  conquered  nation,  that  it  had  never  been  subjugated  by 
China  and  that  it  was  an  independent  state.  As  I  left  the 
great  building  which  from  the  Sungari  bluff  overlooks  the 
vast  western  prairies,  reaching  out  to  Mongolia,  and  looked 
up  at  the  familiar  architecture,  it  seemed  again  to  rock  with 
the  fate  of  kingdoms  as  in  the  days  of  Russia's  Eastern  Em- 
pire and  her  conquest  of  Manchuria  and  Korea. 

Just  before  my  arrival  here  Russia  had  halted  her  time- 
expired  Frontier  Guards  en  route  home,  a  little  west  of  Man- 
chuli,  and  returned  them  to  their  stations.  Regulars  who 
had  reached  Harbin  on  their  way  home  to  Russia  were  sent 
back  to  their  quarters  in  Nickolsk,  in  the  Ussuri  Province. 
Russia's  new  military  strategy,  devised  after  the  war  with 
Japan,  provided  for  mobilisation  directly  against  both  Austria 
and  Eastern  Asia.  France  protested  against  her  ally  Russia 
leaving  the  Russian-German  border  open  and  thus  throwing 
the  burden  of  menacing  Germany  upon  her.  Russia  there- 
upon did  not  actually  move  large  bodies  of  men  to  the  Far 
East,  although  her  plan  set  aside  an  army  of  200,000  men  to 
be  ultimately  stationed  there,  east  of  Lake  Baikal.  Russia, 
however,  made  all  preparations  for  an  even  larger  force  than 

21 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

this  in  Eastern  Asia.  Foreign  military  agents,  judging  by  the 
visible  preparations,  reckoned  this  would  number  400,000  men. 
With  respect  to  the  Chinese  disorder  and  revolution  which 
awed  the  world,  the  first  Eastern  emergency  since  this  strategy 
was  devised,  Russia  now  had  an  expeditionary  organisation 
ready,  with  plans  to  instantly  grasp  this  political  and  military 
situation  in  Mongolia  and  Manchuria,  and  had  placed  her 
railway  in  a  state  of  preparation  to  mobilise  in  Manchuria. 
Military  headquarters  had  been  prepared  at  Harbin. 

Travellers  from  the  east  arrived  here,  augmenting  the  mot- 
ley crowd  going  south,  and  I  joined  them.  The  country 
seemed  full  of  foreign  military  agents,  the  Europeans  and 
Americans  in  mufti — civilian  dress — as  the  English  say.  The 
Japanese  military  uniform  was  the  only  one  in  evidence  save 
the  Russian.  Openly  dressed,  or  in  disguise,  these  military 
agents  who  in  war  are  called  spies,  were  everywhere.  The 
Russians  and  the  Japanese  were  so  busy  with  each  other  that 
they  had  no  time  for  the  English,  the  Germans,  and  the  Ameri- 
cans. Although  it  was  a  matter  which  concerned  their  country 
and  they  were  the  only  other  nationality  to  be  considered  by 
us,  it  was  a  game  in  which  the  Chinese  were  completely  lost. 
Their  officials  occupied  themselves  with  the  Amban,  who 
stopped  over  at  Harbin.  His  suite,  broken  up  at  that  point, 
straggled  southward. 

I  was  the  only  foreigner  in  the  railway  carriage  filled 
with  San  Ta's  refugees  from  Urga.  The  train  was  made  up 
of  such  elements  as  could  be  assembled  only  in  times  of  war 
and  revolution — Mongols,  Manchus,  and  Chinese,  each  suspi- 
cious of  the  other,  yet  willing  fellow-passengers.  They  were 
hedged  about  by  at  least  a  dozen  other  nationalities.  Pic- 
turesque was  a  Cossack  horsewoman  who  had  ridden  across 
Central  Asia;  romantic  was  a  Polish  girl  from  the  Sorbonne 
at  Paris,  seeking  her  Chinese  husband  in  the  South.  In  my 
carriage  were  the  ladies  of  the  Amban's  suite,  with  their  serv- 
ing-women packed  in  separate  coupes  and  children  in  the  cor- 
ridors, shy  and  fearful  of  me,  but  willing  to  be  friends  when 
they  heard  their  own  tongue.  The  children  and  servants 
mixed  with  the  train-boys  and  amused  themselves  watching 

22 


the  steaming  samovars  and  the  serving  of  tea  to  the  passen- 
gers. 

Attached  was  a  diningf-car,  far  more  crowded  than  before. 
Baggage  was  stacked  under  the  tables.  Fur-lined  orange  and 
purple  silks  showed  that  the  Urga  lamas  and  princes  were 
there.  Their  attendants  filled  up  the  aisles  and  vestibules. 
The  buffet  was  overtaxed,  but  there  was  a  table  d'hote  dinner. 
The  courses  followed  each  other  irregularly,  served  by  the 
Chinese. 

Among  others  around  me  was  a  revolutionary  Chinese — 
a  school-teacher  at  Mukden.  My  table-mate  was  a  Chinese 
ex-naval  officer,  secretary  and  agent  of  perhaps  the  only 
Chinese  in  China  that  could  be  called  a  "prince  of  industry." 
This  latter  was  involved  against  his  intentions  in  the  Republi- 
can revolt.  His  high  position  and  the  reforms  with  which  he 
was  connected  caused  him  to  be  charged  with  precipitating  by 
his  official  acts  the  outbreak  of  revolution. 

The  Mongols  kept  apart  and  conversed  discreetly  among 
themselves.  It  was  not  easy  to  engage  any  one  of  them. 
It  was  not  until  after  the  meal  that  I  had  an  opportunity  to 
speak  with  them.  I  offered  a  cigarette  to  a  lama  of  magnifi- 
cent physique,  big,  of  striking  colour,  and  dressed  in  a  silk, 
orange-coloured  coat,  belted  in,  and  with  a  carmine  cap  with 
gold  braid.  He  accepted  the  cigarette,  likewise  a  match. 

"You  manage  what  honourable  affairs?"  said  he,  with 
perfect  self-possession,  but  surprised  at  my  addressing  him. 

"I  am  an  American  and  a  journalist.  I  have  been  in  these 
regions  twelve  years.  I  passed  along  with  the  Amban's  party 
and  heard  that  you  have  had  important  affairs  in  your  Capi- 
tal. Is  that  not  so?" 

As  I  approached  this  subject  I  could  see  the  lama  hedging. 
Had  he  been  a  Frenchman,  he  would  have  shrugged  his  shoul- 
ders at  this  inquiry.  Being  a  Mongol,  he  gave  a  quizzical 
duck  of  the  head  and  showed  that  he  was  waiting  for  the  next 
question.  The  lama's  companions  got  up  and  left,  and  we  were 
alone.  I  continued : 

"The  Russian  official  newspaper  in  St.  Petersburg  has  said 
that  Mongolia  wanted  to  have  its  own  Government.  Ameri- 

23 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

cans  do  not  think  this  any  affair  of  their  own,  but  are  inter- 
ested and  like  to  hear  of  Mongolia's  welfare.  I  have  heard 
that  the  lamas  and  princes  at  Urga  have  made  a  new  Govern- 
ment of  their  own.  Many  new  things  are  happening  now- 
adays in  China  and  I  hear  it  said  that  Russia  wants  Mongolia." 

"Russia  wants  Mongolia."  Here  I  put  my  finger  on  the 
pulse  of  Genghis  Khan,  the  Mongol's  pride  of  independency, 

of  which  General  X had  told  me.    I  was  surprised  at  the 

suddenness  with  which  the  unconquered  Mongol  in  him  leaped 
to  its  defence.  He  said  in  the  shortest,  quickest  words: 

"Mongolia  will  not  be  Russian."  He  shook  his  head. 
Again  he  looked  up  at  me. 

"The  Japanese  and  many  others  say  that  Russia  has  had 
a  hand  in  this  affair  at  Urga,"  said  I.  "Russia  has  been  a 
very  good  friend  of  Mongols." 

He  continued  to  hedge  along  this  line  of  talk,  but  admitted 
that  Mongolia  had  good  relations  with  Russia  and  a  very 
friendly  trade. 

"But  you  have  Russian  soldiers  at  Urga,  isn't  that  so?" 

"Russia  has  been  friendly.  The  soldiers  are  not  many,  not 
more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty." 

"But  I  hear  they  have  a  regiment  on  the  frontier  and  that 
they  can  take  Maimaichen  and  then  march  to  Urga." 

"They  have  no  soldiers  at  Maimaichen." 

"Well,  they  don't  need  them,"  said  I.  "Mongolia  has  no 
soldiers,  and  if  Russia  used  soldiers  she  would  only  make 
enemies  of  your  people.  Russia  is  a  great  country,  with  many 
interests  in  Mongolia.  It  is  important  to  her  to  have  Mon- 
golia independent.  She  would  do  whatever  she  could  to  help 
you  in  this." 

He  listened  intently  to  this  reasoning,  and  without  commit- 
ting himself  in  words,  acquiesced  in  actions.  He  bowed  in  the 
affirmative,  and  waited  for  the  next. 

Due  to  the  fact  that  he  was  on  a  mission  to  Peking,  it 
was  not  expected  that  he  would  be  communicative,  as  is 
plainly  shown  by  the  style  of  our  conversation.  But  he  took 
care  to  impress  upon  me  these  facts :  the  Talai  Lama's  success 
in  promulgating  his  declaration  of  autonomy  for  Mongolia; 

24 


THE    MONGOL    REBELS 

the  non-interference  of  the  Russian  soldiers  at  Urga;  the  un- 
impeded departure  of  the  Amban;  the  orderly  state  of  Urga 
and  the  quietude  of  the  country.  More  important  than  all 
was  the  fact  that  from  the  lama's  standpoint,  representing  the 
Government  of  Mongolia  and  linked  with  their  kin  the  Man- 
chus,  they  of  the  North  as  conquerors — the  ancient  conquerors 
of  all  China  and  parts  of  Burmah — could  not  recognise  the 
advance  of  the  Chinese  against  the  North.  Rather  than  do 
so,  they  would  break  with  their  kinsmen  the  Manchus. 

It  was  extremely  interesting  to  me,  facing  this  magnificent 
Mongol,  to  see  the  exhibition  of  fine  caution  which  the  Mon- 
gols were  obliged  to  exercise  before  the  Russians,  Manchus, 
and  Chinese.  It  showed  the  acuteness  of  the  revolutionary 
situation  in  the  North.  I  considered  that  Mongolia  at  this 
moment  was  in  a  position  nearly  parallel  to  that  in  which 
Shantung  was  at  the  time  of  its  secession,  and  in  which  Man- 
churia was  after  declaring  its  independence.  Mongolia  had 
perhaps  not  yet  realised  that  it  was  at  the  mercy  of  foreign  an- 
tagonists, that  by  cutting  itself  off  from  China  it  was  in  fact 
exposed  to  three  sets  of  claws :  on  the  South  to  those  of  the 
Chinese  Dragon ;  on  the  East  those  of  the  Japanese  Tiger ; 
and  on  the  North  and  West  those  of  the  Russian  Bear.  It 
appeared  to  have  but  one  expectation :  in  order  to  obtain  se- 
curity from  China — from  which  it  had  just  parted — and  Japan, 
it  must  make  a  questionable  bargain  with  Russia,  in  which  its 
independence  must,  sooner  or  later,  disappear. 

Manchuria,  through  which  we  were  now  passing,  never 
had  more  than  a  nominal  independency  through  its  act  of 
secession,  November  14,  1911.  The  staid  and  loyal  old  Vice-' 
roy,  Chao  Er-hsun,  adroitly  turned  the  Administration  into 
a  Committee  of  Safety  (Society  of  Order),  of  which  he  took 
the  Presidency,  a  device  that  satisfied  all  but  the  most  clamor- 
ous reformers.  He  then  informed  the  Throne  at  Peking  that 
the  people  through  the  Provincial  Assembly  at  Mukden  had 
forced  him  into  this  position,  which  it  was  impossible  to  avoid. 
A  mutiny  among  the  troops  at  Liao-yang  occurred  which  he 
successfully  suppressed,  secretly  executing  the  ringleaders  and 
suspects,  estimated  at  sixty  in  number.  Notwithstanding  the 

25 


.     THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

cleverness  and  adroitness  with  which  the  experienced  old 
Viceroy  met  emergencies,  a  state  of  disorder  resulted,  and  for 
a  time  there  was  a  hurried  flight  of  progressives  into  the  Japa- 
nese railway  zone,  especially  at  Mukden,  where  they  paid 
dearly  for  Japanese  protection  under  the  name  of  rents  and 
hotel  fees.  Doubtful  of  the  army,  the  astute  Viceroy  called 
in  the  two  principal  chiefs  of  Manchuria's  ancient  and  pic- 
turesque robbers,  known  all  over  the  world  as  the  "Red 
Beards"  (Hung-hu-tzu),  sat  them  down  at  his  table,  made 
them  his  chiefs  of  police,  and  in  conformity  with  their  dig- 
nity as  "generals"  sanctioned  the  enlistment  of  a  military  body 
of  their  followers.  In  a  speech  to  the  Committee  of  Safety, 
members  of  the  Provincial  Assembly,  and  the  people,  he  stated 
Manchuria's  position,  warning  them  to  remember  in  whatever 
they  proposed  to  do,  Japan  could  take  possession  of  the  Gov- 
ernment within  twenty-four  hours.  The  result  was  that  Man- 
churia was  now  ruled  by  the  Viceroy  through  the  Committee 
of  Safety,  was  politically  unchanged,  and  impossible  of  chang- 
ing without  danger  of  being  crushed  by  the  millstones  Russia 
and  Japan,  between  which  it  was  placed.  The  Throne  at 
Peking  was  curiously  silent  respecting  these  secessions  of 
Shantung,  Manchuria,  and  Mongolia.  To  Shantung  the 
Prime  Minister,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  sent  this  terse  warning: 
"Watch  the  Germans."  Not  even  this  was  needed  for  Man- 
churia. The  tempestuous,  international  ocean  in  which  it 
rocked,  righted  its  staggering  ship  of  state. 

The  Chinese  as  rulers  of  the  Empire  had  already  per- 
formed the  best  work  in  Manchuria  and  Mongolia  of  which 
they  had  thus  far  been  capable.  They  have  not  been  soldiers 
in  these  later  generations  and,  as  a  race,  conquerors  only  in 
the  absorption  of  the  Manchus  and  the  conquest  of  their  gov- 
erning institutions  and  processes.  Their  efforts  at  reform 
and  industrial  development  in  Manchuria  have  been  costly 
failures,  which  with  respect  to  Manchuria  have  brought  them 
to  provincial  bankruptcy.  All  efforts  of  the  State  to  promote 
the  welfare  of  its  Northern  territories  and  defend  their  fron- 
tiers have  been  pitifully  futile.  It  is  Giina's  own  race  and 
people,  with  their  inherent  virtues,  working  their  way  through 

26 


THE    MONGOL    REBELS 

these  regions  in  successful  colonisation,  that  constitute  the  only 
bulwark  in  these  vital  times  which  China  possesses  there, 
consider  that  in  this  influence,  obtained  almost  in  spite  of  her- 
self, China  has  been  given  a  provision  for  this  Northern  situ- 
ation :  this  bulwark  of  the  Chinese  Pioneer. 

The  lama  and  his  companions,  their  curious  and  motley 
train-fellows,  their  servants,  their  smoking  samovars,  passed 
through  the  Great  Wall  that  divides  China  proper  from  Man- 
churia, and  disappeared  in  the  direction  of  Peking. 


CHAPTER  IV 
WITHIN   THE   GREAT  WALL 

AT  Shan-hai-kuan,  over  the  City  gate,  guarding  the  road 
to  the  Middle  Kingdom,  is  the  inscription:  "First 
Gate  of  the  World." 

This  is  the  spot  where  the  Manchus  entered  China.  This 
is  the  scene  where  Dorgon,  the  Manchu  Regent,  and  the 
Chinese  rebels  enacted  the  drama  by  which  the  Manchus  were 
seated  on  their  now  tottering  throne,  200  miles  to  the  west. 
I  paused  to  look  at  the  Great  Wall,  which  seems  to  rock  upon 
the  mountain-top  and  come  tumbling  down  the  spurs  and 
ridges  that  here  approach  the  coast — that  approach  it  to  tumble 
this  hoary  "old  man  of  the  sea"  from  its  leagues  upon  leagues 
of  back,  down  into  the  ocean  waters ;  for  here,  like  Johnson's 
cataract  that  "fell  from  precipice  to  precipice,"  the  Wall  is 
seen  no  more.  Here,  where  its  wave-cloven  masonry  disap- 
pears in  the  ocean,  I  stood  for  some  moments  awed  anew  by 
the  magnificence  and  wonder  of  its  physical  construction,  illus- 
trative of  the  matchless  civilisation  of  China,  her  family  de- 
velopment, morality,  art,  industry,  her  vast  social  and  govern- 
mental structure  and  immeasurable  resources.  Fifty  miles  of 
watch-towers  and  fortresses,  multiplying  as  they  advance,  lead 
to  this  spot  where  castles,  bastions,  and  battle-grounds  indicate 
the  tangled  history  and  the  complicated  problems  of  the  thea- 
tre within. 

As  for  the  mountains  and  the  plains  alone,  I  might  have 
been  travelling  in  any  country  in  the  same  latitude.  All  moun- 
tains and  plains  are  the  same,  but  the  towns  and  the  people 
are  different.  It  is  they,  the  people,  who  have  indelibly 
stamped  their  heritage  "China."  I  entered  a  Chinese-print 
environment  at  the  town  of  Chang-li,  with  its  name  like  a  rip- 
pling lute,  with  its  airy  towers,  walls  firm  as  the  rock  behind, 
its  gentle  people  in  full  garments — in  summer  a  pastoral  place 

28 


WITHIN    THE    GREAT   WALL 

of  tent-like  hats,  fans,  carrying  poles  and  baskets  of  plenteous 
fruits.  It  is  such  a  thing  to  look  upon  as  in  old  pictures  has 
given  the  world  the  notion  it  at  present  possesses  of  what 
China  is.  This  is  the  beaten  track — the  line  of  travel  that  I, 
hurrying  to  Peking,  cannot  avoid.  It  is  the  railway  along  the 
sea  to  China's  Capital  taken  by  the  eleven  Powers  of  the 
West  in  1900  for  their  communication  with  Peking.  It  bars 
China  from  her  ancient  ocean ;  but  beyond  it,  behind  Chang-li, 
at  Yung  ping-fu,  is  the  Manchu  military  outpost  guarding  the 
"First  Gate  of  the  World"  and  the  highway  to  Peking.  From 
here  its  own  troops,  November  26,  1911,  sent  the  ultimatum 
that  forced  the  Throne  to  swear  allegiance  to  a  new  and 
revolutionary  Constitution  of  nineteen  articles  that  had  been 
formulated  by  the  Imperial  Assembly. 

This  railroad  is  already  garrisoned  by  foreign  troops — 
English  for  the  moment  because  it  is  security  for  English 
loans,  but  later  to  be  guarded  by  troops  of  all  the  Great 
Powers  so  as  to  ensure  foreign  access  to  Peking,  in  spite  of 
all  emergencies  of  Chinese  revolution.  By  the  Protocol  with 
the  Powers  settling  the  Boxer  War,  China's  troops  may  not 
come  within  short  artillery  range,  and  are  nowhere  seen  ex- 
cept as  ordinary  passengers  and  in  small  numbers. 

Under  the  Protocol,  this  railway  zone  and  the  trains  have 
become  an  asylum  where  there  are  more  elements  of  revolu- 
tion than  can  be  seen  in  the  country  through  which  I  have 
travelled.  But  all  is  peaceful.  All  meet  on  this  line  of  com- 
munication for  safety.  They  travel  here  because  all  is  secure. 
As  our  train  rolls  into  Tientsin  we  are  on  foreign  soil. 
Here  are  the  great  settlements  governed  by  Britain,  France, 
Germany,  Japan,  and  Austria,  in  which  the  higher  Chinese 
and  Manchu  families  of  Peking  and  the  surrounding  country 
have  taken  refuge.  Because  of  high  foreign  prices  or  limited 
native  means  they  have  in  many  places  packed  themselves  into 
foreign  rooms  as  closely  as  in  the  coupes  in  our  train.  A  quiet 
English  street,  Victoria  Terrace,  holds  families  of  smaller  offi- 
cials of  the  Board  of  Communications  at  Peking.  Places  that 
surprise  the  onlooker  because  of  the  use  to  which  they  are  put, 
hold  the  families  of  secretaries  and  ministers  of  the  Board  of 

29 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

War,  the  Board  of  Finance,  the  Board  of  Education,  and  the 
Board  of  Foreign  Affairs.  Barons,  marquises,  dukes,  and 
even  princes,  have  sequestered  their  women  and  children  in 
quaint  Nuremburg  houses  in  the  German  Concession.  The 
old  abandoned  Y.  M.  C.  A.  building  is  the  refuge  of  the  family 
of  the  Premier,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai. 

Tientsin  is  also  the  refuge  for  Oriental  anarchists,  revolu- 
tionary assassins,  and  secret  societies;  for  revolutionary  gen- 
erals who  have  precipitated  premature  revolts,  and  Republican 
editors  who  have  anticipated  the  Republican  millennium — all 
living  for  the  most  part  in  the  discomfort  of  foreign  expense 
and  luxury,  wishing  for  their  own  homes,  fearful  of  the  tidal 
wave  of  revolution,  and  waiting  for  it  to  pass.  Everywhere 
about  them  are  the  visible  signs  of  order  and  foreign  power. 
Here  is  the  base  from  which  the  Powers  operate  to  handle 
the  situation  as  it  affects  their  interests. 

Those  natives  who  have  taken  refuge  in  Tientsin  represent 
only  a  small  per  cent,  of  the  privileged  element.  All  China 
lies  without  and  beyond  these  confines,  and  it  is  this  interior 
China  that  centres  in  itself  all  interests.  The  pioneers  have 
passed  the  barrier,  the  privileged  classes  have  fled  to  the  for- 
eign settlements  and  to  Japan,  but  the  stay-at-home  Chinese 
within  the  Great  Wall  face  me  in  unnumbered  millions  as  I 
turn  inland. 

:  A  marvellous  condition  prevails.  There  is  no  Goi'ernment. 
The  Republic  on  the  Yangtse  has  no  Government,  only  a  mili- 
tary and  civil  Junta.  The  North  has  no  Government,  only  a 
Premier,  powerless  and  marked  for  assassination.  In  the 
North  the  country  is  quiet  and  there  is  only  seen  here  and 
there  a  skulking  robber.  Below  the  Yellow  River  in  the  East 
is  famine,  brigandage,  and  the  disheartening  levies  of  the 
troops  of  two  opposing  armies  upon  that  region's  beggarly 
resources.  The  Yangtse  Valley  is  seething  with  plans  for  a 
new  nation. 

In  the  South-east  the  Cantonese  are  preparing  to  march 
upon  Peking,  and  their  leaders  are  defying  authority  and 
order.  In  the  South-west  the  feudal  ages  have  been  restored. 
In  the  West  the  great  province  of  Szechuan  is  working  from 

30 


WITHIN    THE    GREAT   WALL 

a  state  of  chaos  to  one  of  competent  self-government.  In  the 
North-west,  along  the  Yellow  and  Wei  Rivers,  the  age  of 
Genghis  Khan  is  reproduced,  and  the  bodies  and  members  of 
men,  women,  and  children  are  dragged  in  the  streets  by  dogs. 

What  is  the  matter  with  the  people  within  the  Great  Wall  ? 
All  know  that  they  have  been  moving  socially  since  they  began 
to  take  to  heart  the  lessons  of  their  contact  with  Western 
countries.  Is  it  the  many  or  the  few  ?  Is  it  the  reform  of  a 
nation,  or  is  it  a  conspiracy?  Is  it  the  rebellion  of  the  race 
or  of  the  individual?  And  what  is  it  about? 

The  answer  comes  from  the  few.  The  comparative  con- 
dition of  the  people  is  the  greatest  answer  of  all,  but  there  is 
no  use  to  turn  to  the  masses  for  a  concrete  answer — they  are 
incapable  of  enlightened  thought.  The  statement  of  the  case 
comes  from  the  thinking  few  whose  intelligence  and  education 
have  enabled  them  to  compare  China  with  the  West.  Having 
discovered  the  Magna  Charta  and  tasted  of  individual  rights, 
these  few  set  up  reform  clubs,  secret  societies,  schools,  and 
newspapers,  to  cry  to  the  world  that  answer.  To  them,  their 
Mandarinate,  the  immemorial  Chinese  officialdom,  is  at  the 
bar.  Hear  the  indictment  of  it :  "Officials  can  burn  the  houses 
of  the  people,  but  the  people  are  not  allowed  even  to  light  their 
lamps  [of  knowledge].  An  official  cares  for  his  family  only 
and  nothing  for  the  Country.  The  official  is  like  a  tortoise, 
able  to  protect  himself  from  harm  by  withdrawing  into  his 
hard  exterior.  They  are  multi-faced  and  have  masks  for  every 
occasion.  They  are  'side-steppers'  and  shifters  like  crabs. 
There  is  nothing  they  will  not  do  for  money.  Even  before  the 
oncoming  bomb  of  the  revolutionary  assassin,  the  official  is 
not  deterred  from  his  nefarious  work  of  heaping  up  money. 
It  is  his  ceaseless  occupation.  If  he  only  gets  his  money  he 
stops  his  ears  and  blinds  his  eyes  even  to  the  theft  of  the 
Nation's  railways.  He  sucks  the  lifeblood  of  the  people  and 
fattens  while  they  grow  lean.  Not  satisfied  with  'squeezing' 
them  to  the  extremity,  he  devises  new  taxes. 

"His  eyes  are  without  pupils  and  his  ears  are  plugged 
up.  Make  a  surgical  operation  upon  him  and  no  heart  can 
be  found  among  his  vital  organs  [literally,  'in  the  stomach']. 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

He  sits  in  his  garden  beside  the  wine-jar,  or  in  his  conserva- 
tory among  flower-pots.  His  occupation  is  to  enjoy  himself, 
but  to  do  nothing  for  the  Country.  He  has  a  sharp  head  for 
pushing  himself  in  and  all  sorts  of  instruments  to  open  his 
own  career.  The  long  hat  [emblem  of  the  self-seeking  offi- 
cial] is  always  admired  by  him.  He  butts  into  office,  but 
what  does  he  do  there? 

"The  Foreign  Office  is  merely  sleeping — it  is  not  doing 
anything.  China  cooks  ready  coffee  for  others,  Chinese  stand 
with  difficulty  upon  this  globe.  The  Nation's  strength  is 
wasted  upon  diplomatic  dealings — foreign  diplomacy  lives 
upon  China.  In  her  terror  of  the  thief  within  China  has  for- 
gotten the  lion  outside.  The  Chinese  Government  is  at  bay 
before  wolves  and  tigers ;  but  the  Chinese  Official  grovels  be- 
fore the  confident  Foreigner,  he  is  patronising  and  fearful. 
He  takes  the  Foreigner  in  his  arms,  but  his  own  people  he 
stamps  upon.  He  falls  into  the  net  of  the  Foreigner,  and 
once  in,  he  can  never  get  out. 

"Even  at  The  Hague  Conference  [1909]  China  was  a 
captive  led  by  the  neck  by  the  Powers.  She  is  something 
hunted  by  them  like  a  deer.  Their  greedy  hands  are  breaking 
the  Chinese  bowl.  They  are  plundering  her  mines  while 
Chinese  officials  only  weep.  The  third  of  the  old  Grand  Coun- 
cillors [Yuan  Shih-k'ai]  is  sent  away,  and  two  are  dead 
[Chang  Chih-tung  and  T'ai  Hung-tze],  why  not  bury  the 
other  two  ?  The  ore  in  the  mine  cries  to  them,  'You  two  old 
men  must  protect  us.'  China  is  asleep  with  the  tiger.  The 
Government  is  a  ship  without  a  rudder.  Let  it  go  any  old 
way.  The  waves  are  getting  larger,  the  wind  stronger,  danger 
nearer,  and  within  is  beauty  "and  dissipation  alone  to  cheer 
you." 

So  begin  the  lamentations  of  the  several  years  preceding 
the  rebellion.  And  they  go  on,  eventually  swelling  into  the 
reform  battle-cry.  Confucius,  just  before  he  died,  went  to 
his  doorstep  and,  taking  a  last  view,  wept  for  the  condition 
of  the  world.  His  act  is  like  that  of  the  reformers  on  the  eve 
of  the  rebellion.  To  them  the  last  state  of  the  Mandarin 
was  one  of  complete  degeneracy.  No  man  was  so  hideous 

32 


WITHIN    THE    GREAT   WALL 

or  debased  that  he  could  not  become  an  official  and  having  got 
office,  lived  a  life  of  duplicity  and  went  down  to  the  perdition 
of  the  habitual  opium  smoker,  parting  from  everything,  even 
his  official  rank,  rather  than  surrender  his  pipe. 

The  reform  leaders  of  the  people  were  vigorous  and  not 
without  hope  for  the  densely  ignorant  masses.  To  them  the 
world  was  a  scene  of  nations,  each  trying  to  oust  the  other 
from  its  position.  Though  China  held  with  difficulty  her  mun- 
dane footing,  "she,"  said  they,  "can  stick  to  the  globe,  if  her 
people  have  worthy  minds."  "China  is  now  getting  a  small 
ray  of  light,  but  the  people  are  in  a  debased  state.  China  can 
wash  her  clothes,  but  if  she  would  be  clean,  she  must  wash  her 
body.  She  is  burdened  with  debt,  her  foreign  loans  are  like 
the  stories  of  a  tall  pagoda  resting  upon  her  shoulders,  or  like 
a  heavy  stone  crushing  her  vitals.  Men  honour  the  rich — the 
very  dogs  bite  the  poor.  If  China  cannot  get  on,  she  will 
become  a  beggar  and  the  nation  will  be  dead.  When  a  country 
dies  its  people  become  beasts  of  burden.  Chinese  are  already 
slaves  to  slaves  [a  reference  to  India's  dictation  in  the  affairs 
at  Tibet].  .  .  .  The  future  human  beings  will  be  fearful  to 
look  upon,  harsh  outside,  lean  inside,  with  a  face  like  a  wolf, 
and  armed  to  make  trouble  for  everyone.  .  .  .  Chinese  are 
now  strayed  and  lost  in  a  winter's  snow.  They  have  heavy 
responsibilities  and  few  privileges.  In  spite  of  her  burden  of 
debt  China  must  get  to  the  top  of  the  mountain,  yet  her  peo- 
ple only  weep  under  their  taxes,  they  know  little  more  than 
to  eat,  drink,  and  sleep." 

In  this  condition  the  people  persist  in  their  "blindness, 
vices,  and  ignorance.  Dazzled  by  the  sight  of  money,  they 
are  frantic  in  pursuing  it.  The  bait  of  official  rank  and  its 
attendant  prospects  of  profit  will  tempt  the  Chinese  to  any 
danger.  They  are  under  the  pressure  of  money  and  will  do 
anything  to  get  it. 

"China's  only  special  kind  of  shop  not  found  in  other 
countries  is  that  which  sells  official  rank;  Chinese  are  the 
only  people  who  have  shops  selling  letters  of  recommendation. 
The  fortune-tellers  are  the  leaders  and  guides  of  the  people, 
who  leave  everything  to  fate.  They  promote  superstition  and 

33 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

burn  incense  in  the  temples  to  imaginary  -deities,  with  the  con- 
sequence that  they  have  fear  without  reason.  They  flee  in 
fright  before  their  own  officials.  As  for  the  foreigner,  his 
voice  to  the  Chinese  is  like  that  of  the  demon  of  thunder; 
China  is  indeed  like  a  sick  man  and  needs  strong  medicine. 
Her  people  will  not  give  so  much  as  a  hair  to  help  their  coun- 
try. Those  who  have  advantages  abroad  return  to  be  no 
longer  Chinese,  yet  neither  are  they  foreign.  Alas,  that  it  is 
often  necessary  to  ask,  'To  what  nationality  do  you  belong?' 
The  students  spend  their  money  for  foreign  luxuries,  and 
their  holidays  they  spend  with  singing  girls.  The  people  are 
looking  into  a  perished  country's  mirror — perished  because  of 
the  unworthiness  of  its  people." 

Following  this  lament  of  the  decline  of  the  faith,  patriot- 
ism, individuality,  and  hope  of  the  Chinese,  comes  the  indict- 
ment against  the  Government.  Borrowing  from  the  phrase  so 
often  used  in  his  edicts  by  the  Emperor  and  referring  to  the 
state  of  the  Yueh  and  Wu  kingdoms,  the  Chinese  reformer, 
speaking  of  China's  condition,  says  she  should  "sleep  on  tinder 
and  taste  the  bitter  sausage,"  so  as  not  for  a  moment  to  for- 
get the  critical  state  of  the  Empire.  "The  cart  is  before  the 
horse,"  says  he,  and  asks  with  respect  to  China's  shorn  condi- 
tion, outside  dangers  and  the  only  weapon  at  her  command, 
"What  is  the  use  of  a  fan  in  winter?" 

"I  can  only  speak,"  says  the  student  returned  from  abroad, 
"but  can  do  nothing.  I  cannot  even  get  a  post  in  the  schools." 
China  was  without  leaders,  but  nevertheless  could  not  accept 
leadership  from  those  whom  she  sent  abroad  and  educated  for 
that  purpose.  "China,"  wrote  a  reformer,  "is  like  a  sorrow- 
ful man  standing  on  the  deck  of  a  vessel,  anchored,  with  no 
one  to  work  the  sails." 

"The  Chinese  people  are  shut  out  by  the  officials  from  the 
Government  as  birds  are  shut  out  from  the  mountains  by  the 
clouds.  The  Throne  has  granted  the  right  of  a  Constitution, 
but  the  Government  is  hindering  it.  The  people  are  warming 
up  constitutional  affairs  while  the  officials  are  trying  to  cool 
them.  The  office  for  carrying  out  the  Constitution  is  doing 
nothing;  it  is  out  of  business,  like  a  deserted  temple.  The 

34 


people  are  trying  with  little  strength  to  drive  home  the  reform 
programme,  but  the  officials  who  have  the  power  to  aid  them 
do  nothing.  Parliament  is  like  a  boat  far  from  the  land  and 
beyond  reach.  The  hopes  of  the  people  for  self-government 
are  like  bubbles,  gone  in  a  moment.  While  the  people  mend 
the  Treasury,  the  Government  embezzles  from  it.  The  Courts- 
are  choked  with  delayed  law  cases.  Everything  is  stifled  by 
the  Conservative  Government.  To  attempt  to  teach  the  Con- 
servatives is  like  making  music  for  cattle.  Alas !  the  day  is 
ending  and  the  goal  is  distant." 

Of  all  her  troubles,  it  remained  foi  famine,  the  pressure 
of  her  poverty  and  the  fear  of  enslavement  to  the  foreign 
money-lender,  to  force  China  to  revolt.  "Every  nationality  is 
free  to  do  anything  in  China,"  said  one.  "China  is  imprisoned 
beneath  a  network  of  foreign  railways,"  said  another.  "We 
must  not  allow  the  foreign  foot  to  stand  upon  our  railways," 
said  a  third.  The  external  danger  was  recognised  to  be  the 
cupidity  and  greed  of  foreign  peoples,  who  look  upon  China 
as  fair  game.  China  is  seen  beset  by  them  and  asking :  "With 
whom  shall  I  go?"  They  are  likened  to  woodmen  cutting  off 
the  trunk  and  all  the  branches  of  the  Chinese  tree.  China 
is  the  last  ten-pin  in  the  game  of  bowls  played  by  the  stronger 
Powers :  India,  Egypt,  Turkey,  Persia,  Korea,  and  others  have 
fallen — her  turn  comes  next.  The  menace  of  Japan  and  Rus- 
sia in  the  foreign  danger  is  second  only  to  that  of  the  money 
power.  "Though  the  younger,"  says  a  writer,  "Japan  has 
struck  China,  knocked  her  down  and  enslaved  her."  In  the 
presence  of  Russia  and  Japan,  who  dominate  Northern  China 
principally  through  their  railways  there,  Old  China  is  made 
to  remark  to  Young  China,  "I  am  dying,  you  can  well  deal 
with  such  people." 

The  newspaper  Press  of  the  Chinese  reformers  furnishes 
in  its  cartoons  of  the  three  years  preceding  the  revolution  a 
comprehensive  picture  of  what  is  the  matter  within  the  Great 
Wall  and  what  is  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of  many  of  the 
people  that  now  transforms  them.  Out  of  three  hundred  of 
these  cartoons,  eighty-one  complain  of  the  vices  of  the  officials 
or  Mandarins.  Thirty-seven  picture  the  evils  for  which  Man- 

35 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

darins  are  responsible.     The  most  frequent  grievance  in  this 
category  is  the  obstruction  of  the  plans  for  a  Parliament. 

Seventy  cartoons  depict  with  heartfelt  emphasis  foreign 
oppression  of  China  through  loans,  indemnities,  and  abuse  of 
power.  An  equal  number  with  equal  acuteness  and  equal  bit- 
terness follow  to  show  China's  shortcomings.  Twelve  out  of 
these  latter  point  out  the  vanities  and  vices  of  females,  one 
cartoon  representing  wives  of  the  day  to  be  luxuries.  The 
ignorance  of  the  people  and  their  indifference  to  their  condi- 
tion get  nine  cartoons.  China's  helplessness  in  general  due  to 
vice  follows  with  eight,  and  next  in  order  come,  the  profligacy 
of  Chinese  youths,  religious  darkness,  opium,  gambling,  the 
money  evil  in  other  forms,  worship  of  office  and  power,  dis- 
loyalty, and  national  shame  from  conduct  toward  foreigners. 
Cigarettes  come  last. 

Twenty-six  cartoons  show  the  burdens  of  the  people  and 
their  sick  and  broken  condition  under  them.  Taxation  heads 
this  list,  closely  followed  by  persecution  of  the  Press.  The 
Chinese  mind  is  singularly  balanced,  and  so  in  this  general 
pictorial  gloom  there  appears  such  hope  as  can  be  injected  into 
nine  cartoons  picturing  China's  triumphs  over  her  evils  and 
dangers.  Five  of  these  nine  refer  to  the  educational  and 
moral  awakening  of  women  and  the  importance  of  their  awak- 
ened influence.  The  small  remainder  of  the  three  hundred 
devoted  to  other  topics  are  of  such  miscellaneous  nature  as 
more  than  anything  else  perhaps  to  emphasise  the  importance, 
in  the  minds  of  the  reformers,  of  rebellion  and  revolution. 

By  this  campaign  of  education  carried  on  by  newspapers, 
books,  secret  societies,  lecture  courses  and  schools,  the  people 
of  China,  who  individually  had  always  distrusted  the  officials 
and  Government,  found  out  that  they  all  distrusted  the  officials 
and  the  Government.  This  was  the  greatest  force  in  the  re- 
bellion, which  to  the  minds  of  the  masses  was  relief  from 
taxes  and1,  the  putting  down  of  the  Manchus.  To  the  students 
and  reformers  it  was  the  dawn  of  enlightenment,  the  putting 
of  the  government  into  clean  hands,  and  social  and  industrial 
regeneration.  To  the  literati  who  constitute  the  Mandarinate 
against  which  the  voice  of  the  reformers  was  raised — along 

36 


WITHIN    THE    GREAT    WALL 

with  the  Manchus — it  meant  the  destruction  of  the  Confucian 
system  and  exposing  a  defenceless  people  to  the  rapacity  of 
hungry  foreign  Powers. 

There  was  a  greater  thinking  than  China  had  ever  had. 
The  voices  of  the  people  were  heard.  Their  thoughts  were 
seen  and  read,  and  at  last  with  all  the  agitation,  and  the  pub- 
licity by  the  Press,  the  so-called  inscrutable  Chinese  mind 
was  exposed  and  laid  bare.  Above  the  cries  of  all  the  people 
was  heard  more  clear  and  strong  than  anything  else,  that  of 
faith  lost  in  the  Government,  the  friendlessness  of  the  Manchu 
rulers,  and  the  determination  to  set  up  a  new  Government 
before  the  corrupt  and  worn-out  Mandarin  government  of  the 
Manchus  could  mortgage  the  country  and  its  resources  to 
foreign  money-lenders  and  by  filching  the  proceeds,  obtain 
additional  power  to  obstruct  the  people  in  their  realisation  of 
self-government.  The  great  infirmities  of  the  people,  espe- 
cially ignorance,  have  always  left  them  the  prey  of  the  Man- 
darinate  when  it  was  the  only  thinking  class. 

In  parallel  column  with  the  thinking,  rising  minority — the 
Chinese  mind — is  placed  the  great  unleavened,  unthinking 
mass.  The  only  inscrutable  mind  in  China  is  that  of  this 
mass  which  cannot  think — in  our  meaning  of  the  word — be- 
cause it  has  not  the  tools  with  which  to  think.  But  the  true 
answer  to  the  question,  "What  is  the  matter  within  the  Great 
Wall?"  is  contained  in  the  dumb  reply  of  this  mass,  whose 
condition  speaks  for  itself. 


CHAPTER  V 
WITHIN  THE  WALLS  OF  PEKING 

AS  I  approached  Peking,  the  old  familiar  landmarks  were 
unchanged.  It  was  a  warmer  day  in  a  warmer  lati- 
tude than  that  of  my  recent  travels.  The  only  change 
was  in  the  walls  of  the  cantonments  built  up  along  the  route 
of  British  Admiral  Seymour's  relief  march  in  1900  (Boxer 
War),  where  the  bricks  laid  in  the  loopholes  had  been  punched 
out.  There  were  a  few  Sikh  soldiers  outside  the  cantonments, 
just  as  in  1900  and  after.  The  sun  streamed  through  the  dust 
that  always  hangs  in  suspension  over  the  Peking  plain.  The 
winter  wind  caught  up  the  sand  in  the  sand  dunes  in  little 
flurries  as  I  passed  the  Hunting  Park  and  entered  the  familiar 
region  of  the  flower  nurseries  around  the  villages  of  Feng-t'ai 
and  Ma-chia-p'u.  This  is  abreast  the  walls  of  the  Chinese 
City  of  Peking  through  which  the  train  goes. 

All  was  unchanged.  A  formerly  discredited,  humiliated, 
and  discarded  statesman  was  in  charge  and  was  camping  in 
the  empty  halls  of  the  modern  Foreign  Office  building  (Wai- 
wu-pu),  hitherto  shunned  by  the  Throne  and  Government 
because  built  under  the  supervision  of  the  fallen  statesman 
and  his  protege,  one  of  the  Cantonese  party.  There  was  no 
Government,  it  had  disappeared.  It  was  almost  as  in  1900. 
"Is  Government  superfluous  to  these  people?  Are  they  com- 
pletely Government-proof?"  thought  I.  Only  a  police  guard 
of  Chinese  appeared  at  the  outer  wall  when  the  train  passed, 
later  to  arrive  at  the  Ch'ien  Men,  the  front  gate  of  the  For- 
bidden City  and  palaces  of  the  Manchu  sovereigns.  There 
it  was  a  curiosity  to  the  American  Legation  Guards  on  the 
parapet  above,  as  Peking  now  was  to  me. 

Here  are  the  foundations  of  six  cities  that  have  succeeded 
one  another.  This  was  the  Capital  of  China  when  China  be- 
came known  to  Europe  through  Marco  Polo.  This  is  the  third 

38 


WITHIN    THE    WALLS   OF    PEKING 

time  it  has  been  without  a  Government  in  267  years,  or  since 
the  Manchus  entered  China.  The  first  time  was  when  the 
Court  fled  before  the  British  and  French  allies  in  1860.  The 
second  was  when  the  Court  fled  before  the  enraged  allies  of  a 
dozen  countries  in  1900.  It  has  now  slunk  away  before  the 
immense  figure  of  its  own  enraged  people,  and  has  relinquished 
its  authority  and  delegated,  somehow,  somewhat  of  its  enig- 
matical powers  to  a  "Premier,"  who  can  neither  rule  nor  test 
the  measure  of  his  power. 

The  representatives  of  the  Powers  wonder  from  dawn 
till  nightfall  what  will  happen,  and  from  nightfall  to  dawn 
why  it  has  not  happened.  There  is  nothing  unusual  in  the 
general  appearance  of  the  Chinese  streets.  A  few  more  troops 
have  been  gathered  around  the  Capital,  but  they  are  not  notice- 
able. The  only  evidences  of  China's  great  internal  upheaval 
to  be  seen  in  her  Capital  are  the  crowding  of  foreign  troops 
in  the  Legation  Quarter,  the  barricades  in  the  streets,  and  the 
German  and  American  defences  on  the  adjoining  City  wall. 

It  is  strikingly  like  1900  in  the  Legation  Quarter.  But 
here  the  parallel  ends.  There  is  no  besieging  enemy.  On  the 
contrary,  the  enemy  of  1900  is  now  the  grateful  refugee  within 
the  Legation  walls.  Everywhere  without  the  foreigner  is  re- 
ceived with  open  arms,  in  great  contrast  to  the  days  of  the 
siege,  when  no  foreigner's  life  was  safe  and  those  who  went 
to  parley  left  their  heads  on  the  gates  of  the  City.  He  is 
now  a  surety  and  safeguard.  Without  the  dominating  Court, 
without  the  overshadowing  Palace,  without  the  anti-foreign 
menace,  with  an  over-awing  Republic  in  the  South,  Cathay 
is  indeed  dead.  Peking  is  her  death-mask.  The  Throne  is 
passing,  leaving  the  lifeless  image  of  the  Empire  stretched 
upon  its  Northern  bier.  It  has  surrendered  its  authority  and 
annulled  the  ancient  Manchu  seal.  Its  "sacred  edicts"  have 
already  become  mandates  of  the  Chinese  Premier,  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai,  and  members  of  the  Cabinet.  Its  attentions  to  Govern- 
ment are  confined  to  audiences  with  the  Premier  upon  what 
terms  of  abdication  the  Republic  will  grant  to  it  and  what  se- 
curity it  can  wring  from  the  Republic.  There  is  no  Regent,  and 
the  eight-year-old  Emperor  and  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dow- 

39 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

ager  hold  meetings  with  the  princes  of  the  Mongols,  their 
Northern  kinsmen,  respecting  a  Manchu-Mongol  state  as  an 
asylum,  in  the  last  extremity,  from  the  aroused  Chinese. 
Outer  Mongolia  has  already  fallen  away.  Inner  Mongolia 
remains,  but  is  already  under  conquest  of  the  Chinese  pioneer ; 
while  in  Manchuria  upon  the  Manchu  hearthstone  there  sit 
the  Chinese  pioneer  and  the  Japanese  and  Russian  invaders. 

Even  had  they  not  abandoned  it  for  the  glories  of  the 
Jade  Sceptre,  the  Dragon  Throne,  and  the  fleshpots  within 
the  Wall,  and  had  not  the  Chinese  pioneers  inched  them  from 
their  birthright,  the  Manchus  could  not  now  call  their  home 
their  own.  The  courts  of  their  ancestral  altars  are  crowded 
with  strangers,  and  they  could  not  retire  from  within  the  Wall 
without  begging  crumbs  of  mercy  from  Japan  and  Russia. 
Retribution  for  fifty  years  of  Imperial  error  lies  heavy  upon 
the  widow  of  the  martyr  Emperor  Kuang  Hsu — the  Lung  Yu 
Empress  Dowager — and  the  little  Emperor  orphan  Pu  Yi. 
They  hold  audiences  with  the  Manchu  princes,  with  the  Mon- 
gol princes.  The  Manchu  and  Mongol  princes  confer  with 
each  other,  and  together  they  convene  with  the  Cabinet.  The 
question  is :  Will  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  and  the  Em- 
peror retire  to  Mukden  under  the  protection  of  Japan,  to 
Mongolia  under  protection  of  Russia,  take  refuge  in  the  For- 
eign Legations,  or  accept  the  questionable  guarantees  of  the 
irresponsible  leaders  of  the  Republic  ?  The  most  trusted  Man-' 
chu  Viceroy,  Hsi  Liang,  has  been  placed  in  charge  of  the  old 
summer  capital,  Jehol,  outside  the  Great  Wall,  in  the  moun- 
tains of  Old  Mongolia,  to  keep  open  the  way  to  the  North. 
Here  is  the  road  150  miles  long  that  has  made  of  Mongolia 
a  retreat  and  has  been  the  route  of  flight  in  times  past.  Long 
cart-trains  are  leaving  Peking  by  this  road  with  materials  to 
refurbish  and  store  the  palace  at  Jehol. 

It  is  the  last  days — December,  iQii-January,  1912 — of  the 
Imperial  Assembly,  a  dignified  body  created  by  the  late  Em- 
press Grand  Dowager  according  to  the  rules  for  the  adoption 
of  a  Constitution.  Its  sittings  excited  the  admiration  of  for- 
eign visitors,  but  in  its  last  days  it  is  passing  into  the  eclipse 
of  opera  bouffe.  The  ranks  of  its  members  are  thinned  by  the 

40 


WITHIN    THE    WALLS    OF    PEKING 

withdrawal  of  converts  to  the  Republican  cause,  by  terrorism 
from  the  Republican  assassin  and  fear  of  Manchu  reprisal. 
It  dwindles  below  the  level  of  a  quorum,  holds  a  few  irreso- 
lute meetings,  and  disappears.  Before  its  demise  it  receives  a 
telegram  from  mutineers  of  the  Manchu  military  outposts  at 
Yung-ping-fu  saying  that  the  army  there  has  unanimously 
elected  to  support  the  Republic,  and  asking  the  Assembly  to 
send  at  once  deputies  to  tell  it  what  to  do.  On  the  occasion 
of  its  last  communication  with  the  Yung-ping-fu  army,  the 
Imperial  Assembly  responded  with  forcing  a  provisional  Con- 
stitution for  parliamentary  government  upon  the  Throne.  A 
month  later  it  had  practically  disappeared.  Two  battalions 
of  the  Yung-ping-fu  troops  mutinied  and  awed  the  whole 
region  of  Lan-chou,  threatened  destruction  of  the  railway  there 
guarded  by  foreign  troops,  and  were  not  suppressed  for  several 
days.  Mails  and  telegrams  were  interrupted  and  Peking 
seemed  now  to  be  cut  off  on  three  sides  by  the  Republicans, 
but  there  was  no  response  from  Peking. 

I  had  seen  the  preparations  for  its  birth,  and  I  was  now 
in  at  the  death  of  the  Imperial  Assembly.  Something  of 
the  poise  and  sovereign  dignity  of  the  Chinese  race  seemed  to 
disappear  with  it.  To  me  Peking  had  all  the  appearances  that 
accompany  the  breaking  up  of  a  social  system.  I  stopped  in 
the  street  to  see  old  General  Chiang  Kuei-ti  go  by.  A  Moham- 
medan Chinese,  a  warrior,  but  a  dignitary  of  the  old  school, 
a  big  man  with  round  shoulders,  a  thin  white  beard,  a  ruddy 
face  and  a  ready  smile,  he  rode  along  in  his  under-sized, 
native-made,  rickety  old  four-wheeler  with  raggedy  out-riders, 
to  give  confidence  to  all.  Though  the  Imperial  Government 
with  all  its  departments  and  their  army  of  officials  have  dis- 
appeared, General  Chiang  remains  a  link  with  the  Past.  He 
was  the  late  Empress  Grand  Dowager's  trusty  helper.  It  was 
he  who  covered  the  rear  of  the  Court's  flight  from  Peking  in 
1900,  after  which  he  was  rewarded  with  command  of  the 
forces  that  are  the  Court's  protection  and  bodyguard.  He 
has  perhaps  7,000  soldiers  with  which  to  keep  Peking  quiet. 
They  are  known  among  foreigners  as  a  mob  of  rapscallions 
who  cannot  be  trusted  out  of  his  sight,  who  at  the  first  sign 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

of  disorder  would  overrun  the  region,  plundering  and  burning 
far  and  wide,  and  before  whom  not  even  foreigners  would 
escape. 

There  is  no  conflict  of  opinion  on  this  score.  At  the 
height  of  alarm,  with  disorder  from  Kalgan  to  the  Yellow 
River  on  the  West,  mutiny  and  plunder  on  the  South  reaching 
to  the  sea,  and  with  mutiny  and  broken  communications  on 
the  East,  he  says,  when  asked  of  possible  trouble  in  Peking, 
"Yu  wa"  ("You  have  me").  He  might  be  likened  to  the 
popular  comedian  whose  appearances  are  a  relief  from  the 
harrowing  tension  of  a  too-serious  drama.  Though  trained 
in  Central  Asia,  he  had  attuned  himself  to  the  cosmopolitan 
life  of  Peking  in  his  old  age,  with  gentle  adaptations  and 
with  little  concessions  to  foreign  customs.  But  he  never 
changed  old  customs  for  new  any  more  than  old  maxims  for 
new.  When  he  held  a  review  of  his  riff-raff  troops  on  the 
Peking  plain,  for  some  distinguished  foreign  general,  and  en- 
tertained the  military  attaches  of  all  Europe,  America,  and 
Japan  at  luncheon,  he  stood  like  a  soldier  by  his  temperate 
habits.  He  raised  his  wineglass  to  his  guests  but  never  drank. 
Now  the  foreigners  in  the  Legation  quarters  could  laugh  with, 
but  not  at,  an  old  man  who  so  confidently  and  good  naturedly 
trusted  himself  to  thugs  and  blacklegs.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
there  was  no  treasury  and  no  Government  behind  him,  and 
it  was  doubtful  how  long  the  Imperial  Clan  or  the  Lung  Yu 
Empress  Dowager  would  pay  his  troops,  to  say  nothing  of 
how  long  these  troops  would  obey  discipline.  His  sturdy 
confidence  made  the  denizens  of  the  Legation  Quarter  laugh. 
General  Chiang  rode  on  through  the  Legation  Quarter  and 
out  at  the  barricade  of  sand-bags  and  chevaux  de  frise  erected 
by  foreign  soldiers  defending  the  Legations.  The  Foreign 
Legation  Quarter  looked  more  like  it  did  in  the  days  of  the 
siege  (1900)  than  at  any  time  time  since.  Once  since  then, 
sand-bags  were  gathered  on  the  wall  when  the  American 
Guard  (1907)  took  alarm  at  the  Chinese  firing  rockets  at  night 
and  reported  that  their  pickets  were  being  shot  at  on  the  wall 
beside  the  great  gate  Ch'ien  Men.  But  nothing  happened 
until  the  Legation  garrison  of  ten  nations  was  called  to  arms 

42 


WITHIN    THE    WALLS   OF    PEKING 

by  the  unfurling  of  the  Republican  flag.  Soldiers  whose  for- 
tunes for  ten  years  had  been  those  of  bridge  whist,  were  called 
from  their  card-tables  in  drawing-rooms  and  clubs  to  string 
barbed  wire  on  the  glacis,  turn  gunny  sacks  and  Peking  dust 
into  "sand-bags,"  knock  out  the  brick  veneer  covering  the 
portholes  of  its  enclosures,  and  mount  machine-guns  and  ar- 
tillery in  the  streets,  and  on  the  City  walls  along  the  South. 

The  City  wall  bounding  the  Legation  Quarter  on  the 
South  is  divided  among  the  Americans,  Dutch,  and  Germans. 
The  latter  garrisoned  their  block-house  on  the  wall  and  cut 
off  by  wire  entanglement  the  great  gate  Hata-Men.  On  the 
East  the  Legation  wall  is  divided  among  the  Germans,  French, 
and  Austrians.  The  French  mounted  machine-guns  in  a  fort 
in  the  centre  of  the  East  wall.  On  the  North  the  Austrians, 
Japanese,  Italians,  and  British,  with  underground  listening- 
galleries,  gun  platforms  and  guns,  and  their  position,  together 
with  that  of  the  British,  Russians,  and  Americans  on  the  West, 
faces  the  Forbidden  City.  The  latter  is  overlooked  by  the 
American  block-house  on  the  City  wall  facing  the  great  gate 
Ch'ien  Men.  The  American  Guard  has  taken  possession  of 
the  Ch'ien  Men.  The  'place  has  associations,  for  it  was  the 
scene  of  a  struggle  at  the  time  of  the  relief  of  the  Legations, 
when  Captain  Riley  was  killed  here.  Here  still  lie  some  of 
the  old  cannon  that  for  ages  were  the  defence  of  the  Tartar 
City,  rolled  down  the  incline  on  which  stands  the  gate-tower 
and  left  under  the  parapet  of  the  semi-lune.  The  American 
recruit  muses  with  one  foot  upon  a  cannon  and  the  other  upon 
the  immemorial  pavement  over  which,  as  it  is  written,  three 
or  four  teams  of  horses  may  drive  abreast.  He  sees  the  For- 
bidden City,  which  with  its  red  walls  and  yellow  roofs  looks 
to  him  like  a  great  agricultural  fair.  The  multi-coloured  flags 
of  all  nations  flying,  each  over  its  own  Legation  in  the  Lega- 
tion Quarter,  are  the  only  visible  life  and  strength  of  this 
scene  behind  the  curtain  of  whose  walls  is  a  rare  tragedy  in 
the  drama  of  a  vanishing  Asia. 

The  American  Guard's  companions  off  duty  lounge  in 
the  great  gate-tower  whose  outward  beauty  conceals  its  sterner 
uses  as  an  armory.  Standing  on  blocks  of  white  marble  set 

43 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

in  the  brick  paving,  its  rectangular  walls  of  grey  paving- 
brick  and  red  plaster  rise  to  the  first  roof,  which  is  supported 
by  a  row  of  lacquered  columns  on  the  outside  and  rows  of 
similar  columns  on  the  inside.  Three  roofs  of  green  and 
yellow  tiles  cap  the  superstructure,  supported  by  multi-col- 
oured, intricate,  iridescent  rafters — the  whole  a  pillar  of  fire, 
light,  and  beauty.  This  is  the  watch-tower  of  the  fortress  of 
the  Legations.  Looking  South  toward  the  Republic  there  is 
the  great  South  Gate  two  miles  away,  and  to  the  left  the 
famous  Altar  of  Heaven.  To  the  right  the  Temple  of  Agri- 
culture stands.  Looking  toward  the  cold  Northern  regions 
that  offer  the  Manchus  their  only  apparent  refuge,  there  is 
on  the  left  the  now  abandoned  Imperial  Assembly  hall  and 
the  new  law  buildings  and  courts.  The  Palace  of  the  Lung 
Yu  Empress  Dowager  and  Emperor  with  the  pagodas  of  the 
Western  Park  come  next.  There  are  the  Drum  and  Bell 
towers  and  the  famous  Coal  Hill,  and  tfien  the  Board  of  War, 
the  Anting  Gate,  and  beyond,  in  the  ancient  city  of  the  Mongol 
khans,  the  Altar  of  Earth  and  the  Yellow  Temple  there- 
after the  lama  temple  and  Confucian  temple  with  its 
great  monuments  in  earth  and  stone  reaching  back  nearly 
3,000  years;  and  last,  on  the  right,  is  the  new  Foreign  Office 
building  that  is  the  asylum  of  the  Premier,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai. 
Within  them  all,  and  under  this  eye  of  the  civilised  world 
looking  from  the  Ch'ien  Men,  is  the  Forbidden  City  with  its 
invisible  tragedy,  or  comedy,  of  the  passing  of  the  Manchus, 
the  demise  of  a  Dynasty,  the  death  of  an  Empire. 

The  barbed  wire  stretched,  the  chevaux  de  frise  set  up, 
the  sand-bags  and  the  guns  hauled  out,  the  reinforcements 
brought  up  from  the  sea  off  Taku,  by  barge  and  train,  and 
new  guards  posted,  the  bridge-tables  are  again  brought  out, 
the  cross-country  paper  race  and  the  club  bowling  tournament 
entries  are  posted,  invitations  fqr  the  New  Year's  skating 
carnival  are  sent  out,  and  the  Legations  stolidly  recommence 
their  accustomed  diversions. 

The  swan-cry  in  the  Palace  of  the.  Manchus  is  accompa- 
nied by  the  clatter  of  hockey  in  the  rinks  at  the  Peking  Club 
and  the  American  Guard  compound.  The  Imperial  Clan  lis- 

44 


.WITHIN    THE    WALLS   OF   PEKING 

tening  to  the  voice  of  doom,  also  hears  the  heavy  roll  of  for- 
eign cannon,  wheel,  and  hoof,  gently  thundering  through  the 
streets.  And  equally  welcome  to  them,  the  sound  of  the  feet 
of  foreign  soldiers  drilling  on  the  parade-ground;  for  when 
worst  comes  to  worst,  these  soldiers  will  be  a  defence  against 
primeval  savagery  in  Peking. 

Peace  negotiations  have  begun  and  the  Revolution  lags. 
Events  do  not  move  fast  enough  for  the  Occidental  watchers 
at  the  bedside  of  this  Sick  Man  of  Asia — China — and  they 
increase  the  pace  of  their  diversions,  mixing  them  with 
rumours  and  speculations  from  the  bottomless  pit  which  re- 
sults from  a  mixture  of  European  and  Asiatic  thought.  The 
receptions,  dinner-parties,  conferences,  card-tables,  are  inter- 
rupted by  messages  from  the  mission  stations  in  the  outlying 
streets  bringing  information  from  the  country  or  asking  for 
guards  for  the  Missions.  The  dispatches  from  the  chancel- 
lories of  the  Great  Powers  in  Europe  and  America  begin  to 
come  in  to  Peking  at  the  dinner-hour  and  after.  The  day's 
rumours  are  sifted  at  the  K.T.K. — cocktail  club.  The  secre- 
taries slip  from  the  glittering  dinner-tables  shortly  after  nine, 
and  relight  the  lamps  in  the  Legation  chanceries.  Nightly 
they  burn  midnight  oil  over  cipher  dispatches  to  their  home 
Governments.  Press  correspondents  come  and  go,  here  and 
there  challenged  by  sentries,  and  when  the  chanceries  are 
dark,  file  their  Press  dispatches  to  the  great  capitals  of  Amer- 
ica, Europe,  and  Japan. 

Without  are  darkness  and  silence.  The  stolid  Chinese  lie 
down  in  peace  at  night.  The  night  is  reserved  for  the  Em- 
peror. It  is  his  immemorial  hour  of  toil.  At  midnight  the 
great  Ch'ien  Men  is  thrown  open,  and  from  the  Chinese  City 
on  the  South  come  Court  ministers  and  officials  called  to  audi- 
ence, joining  the  little  stream  that  nightly  trickles  in  from 
the  East,  the  North,  and  West  through  the  East  Gate  of 
Peace  and  the  Flowery  Eastern  Gate  of  the  Forbidden  City, 
after  their  audiences  or  attendance  at  the  Throne  Hall  to  re- 
turn home  at  dawn. 

But  now  closed  is  the  great  Ch'ien  Men.  The  boy-Empe- 
ror sleeps  and  nocturnal  vigils  are  resumed  by  the  Manchu 

45 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

Clan.  The  Bureau  of  Constitutional  Affairs,  the  Bureau  for 
Opium  Suppression,  the  Ministry  of  Education,  the  Board 
of  Interior,  the  Board  of  Posts  and  Communications  are 
empty.  Their  ministers  and  secretaries,  if  not  fled  from  the 
City,  remain  at  home.  The  Ministry  of  Finance  and  the 
Foreign  Office  are  suspended.  People  inquire  where  the  Min- 
isters are  and  do  not  care  sufficiently  to  wait  for  a  reply. 
From  the  Board  of  War  nine-tenths  of  the  staff  have  departed. 
Abandoned  by  the  State,  the  City  is  reverting  to  the  condition 
of  the  provinces.  Always  more  liberal  than  the  provinces,  its 
Administration  has  left  it  to  its  own  devices.  With  the  in- 
crease of  danger  the  Manchus  more  and  more  give  rein  to 
the  reformers  and  confine  themselves  to  increasing  the  effi- 
ciency of  their  Capital  police,  gendarmes,  and  military  body- 
guard. The  guilds  and  merchants  have  banded  together  and 
formed  their  own  defences,  arming  their  watchmen  like  sol- 
diers. There  is  toleration  for  the  newspapers  advocating  even 
abdication.  While  newspaper  offices  are  being  closed  in  Man- 
churia and  Shantung  and  newspaper  premises  mobbed  and 
destroyed  at  Shanghai  in  the  Republic,  the  Press  and  people 
of  Peking  are  left  unrestrained.  At  dawn  they  awaken  and 
see  the  secretaries,  the  last  to  cling  to  the  Manchus  and  the 
Premier,  leaving  for  Tientsin.  A  shudder  shakes  the  City, 
and  a  little  mob  possessing  some  rumour  originating  in  the 
Press  district  of  the  Chinese  City  filters  through  the  traffic 
of  the  Ch'ien  Men,  grows  as  it  moves  between  the  Forbidden 
City  and  the  Legation  Quarter,  surges  along  past  the  Palace 
gates,  and  when  strength  is  dissipated  vanishes  near  the  great 
Anting  Gate.  In  the  tea-houses  are  heard  stories  of  the  coin- 
ing of  the  princes  from  the  North,  of  the  Mohammedan  rebels 
from  the  West,  of  the  mutineers  from  the  East,  and  the  Re- 
publicans from  the  South.  At  the  close  of  another  day  the 
Premier's  secretary  dispatches  valuables  to  Tientsin,  while 
many  receiving  some  warning  flee  by  train  to  safety  at  Tien- 
tsin, Dalny,  Tsing-tao,  or  even  Japan.  Incoming  trains  bring 
gentry  from  the  country,  who  knowing  no  other  place  flee  to 
Peking. 

At  the  very  gates  of  the   Palace  the  shops   vend  lurid 

46 


WITHIN    THE    WALLS   OF    PEKING 

pictures  of  the  fall  of  Nanking,  and  the  battles  of  Hankow 
and  Hanyang,  with  Japanese  portraits  of  the  rebel  leaders 
and  conspirators.  Beside  the  old  portraits  of  Kuang  Hsu  and 
the  late  Empress  Grand  Dowager,  the  boy-Emperor  and  the 
new  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager,  are  exhibited  the  likenesses 
of  the  Republican  leaders  Li  Yuan-hung,  Sun  Yat-sen,  and 
Hwang  Hsing, — as  it  were,  flaunting  the  Republic  in  the  face 
of  the  Empire.  Doomed  to  remain,  the  poor  booth-keepers 
under  the  shadow  of  the  executioner's  knife  are  compelled  by 
their  conditions  to  turn  disloyalty  and  loyalty  alike  into  pen- 
nies, thus  ''parching  their  millet  on  the  floor  of  hell." 

At  afternoon  tea  members  of  the  Legations  receive  re- 
quests from  their  Chinese  friends  for  permission  to  store  art 
works  and  other  articles  of  value  in  the  Legation  houses.  In 
the  atmosphere  of  old  Ming  paintings,  Sung  porcelains,  Tang 
jades,  Han  potteries,  and  Shang  bronzes,  the  French  class  at 

the  Legation  reads  "Cyrano  de  Bergerac."  In  purple 

gowns  of  Chinese  silk,  the  "Purple  Cows,"  from  legation, 
bank,  barracks  and  press,  meet  under  the  Milky  Way  to  read 
essays  on  modern  thought  and  life  and  to  discuss  the  French 
Revolution  and  the  spectacles  in  Asia.  Events  or  the  lack 
of  events  had  brought  up  a  comparison  among  watchers  by 
the  Manchu  bier,  of  the  French  and  Chinese  revolutions. 

Such  sights  as  heads  dragged  through  the  streets  by  their 
queues,  midnight  assassinations,  not  to  mention  wholesale 
massacres  of  Manchus  in  the  West  and  South,  suggested  some 
such  fate  for  China's  autocracy  of  privilege  as  had  overtaken 
the  autocracy  of  title,  wealth,  and  privilege  in  France.  Was 
the  foreign  debt,  the  Manchu-Chinese  incubus  at  Peking,  and 
the  new  army,  merely  the  Church,  the  Throne,  and  the  Army 
of  French  Revolutionary  history?  Was  the  demand  for  the 
return  of  Foreign  Concessions,  the  throttling  of  the  Stamp 
Tax  and  railway  construction  levies,  the  Gallic  cry  for  "bread 
and  speech  with  the  King"  ?  Were  the  Amazons  of  Shanghai 
en  route  to  Nanking  the  fishwives  marching  on  Versailles? 
Were  the  "Bomb  Pioneer  Auxiliary"  the  Mesdemoiselles 
Theroignes  of  China?  Was  the  Imperial  Assembly  usurping 
powers  of  actual  legislation  and  imposing  a  Constitution, 

47 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

merely  the  National  Assembly  of  Mayor  Bailly?  Were  the 
rabble  soldiery  and  highwaymen  of  Hsian-fu  in  their  ruthless 
massacre  of  7,000  helpless  Manchus — leaving  their  bodies  to 
the  dogs — other  "Sans  Culottes"  carrying  the  heads  of  the 
late  aristocrats  on  pikes?  Were  the  decadent  Manchu  Clan 
and  Government  a  second  French  Court?  Was  Chang  Hsun 
of  Nanking,  now  "the  last  chance  of  guiding  and  controlling 
this  revolution" — Chang  Hsun,  the  dissolute  voluptuary,  briber 
of  Prince  Ching,  swashbuckler  and  leading  Imperialist  Gen- 
eral with  the  character  and  morals  of  Mirabeau,  a  rebel  or  a 
loyalist?  Was  Li  Yuan-hung  or  Sun  Yat-sen  the  Robespierre 
of  China?  And  who  were  the  Marats,  Dantons,  and  the  Des- 
moulins?  As  for  the  Allies — we  were  the  Allies.  Was  the 
"lai  lo"  (It  has  come) — the  fall  of  the  Manchus — only  the 
"c.a  ira"  of  the  French  street  mobs,  or  was  this  a  revolution 
the  like  of  which  had  never  been?  Was  the  ubiquitous  heads- 
man of  China  merely  La  Guillotine  ? — These  are  the  themes  of 
the  cosmopolitan  raconteur  of  the  "Purple  Cow." 

From  these  diversions  the  Legation  students,  philosophers, 
and  critics  turned  and  took  photographs  of  all  the  sights  and 
scenes,  and  exchanged  their  portraits  in  commemoration  of  the 
historic  times  in  which  they  were  living.  Was  this  the  birth- 
chamber  of  the  Mongol  Napoleon  whose  rise  Europe  has 
dreaded  since  the  Mongols  swept  Western  Europe,  greater 
than  Mutsuhito,  the  king-destroyer  of  Japan?  Impressed  by 
the  august  manner  of  his  return  to  power  after  his  dismissal 
in  1908,  the  world  has  selected  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  as  the  Napoleon 
of  Asia.  But  to  many  Legation  critics  he  was  a  turncoat  and  a 
betrayer  comparable  with  the  greatest  traitors  of  Chinese 
history.  He  was  numbered  with  the  arch-conspirators  of  the 
Han  Dynasty,  Wang,  Tung  and  Ts'ao,  and  many  believed  that 
like  Wang  he  was  plotting  to  usurp  the  throne  for  himself. 

I  can  recall  no  situation  in  Chinese  history  that  seemed 
to  me  exactly  to  resemble  the  conditions  in  the  Capital.  After 
the  resignation  in  September  of  Prince  Ching  as  Premier 
and  his  recommendation  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  as  the  ablest  man 
available  to  be  his  successor,  no  voice  was  raised  in  Peking 
in  defence  of  the  Throne  or  against  it.  The  immemorial  in- 

48 


stitutions  of  the  Grand  Secretariat,  the  Grand  Council,  the 
Board  of  Censors,  and  the  Hanlin  College  were  silent.  The 
head  of  the  Manchu  Clan  had  handed  over  the  Government 
to  the  betrayer  of  the  Emperor.  In  times  past  men  of  the 
Censors  memorialised  the  Emperor  in  protest  against  the  evils 
of  the  times  and  killed  themselves  in  evidence  of  their  convic- 
tions. Now  not  only  was  there  no  voice  raised,  but  so  far  as 
the  Government  at  Peking  was  concerned,  it  was  not  possible 
to  state  if  any  life  of  its  mandarins  or  scholars  was  at  stake. 
It  would  have  been  more  in  keeping  with  the  social  disorder  of 
China  to  have  had  a  carnival  of  assassinations.  I  had  just 
made  this  observation  to  a  fellow- journalist  in  a  room  in  the 
Legation  Quarter  where  we  were  sitting  when  a  reporter 
burst  through  the  door. 

"Did  you  hear  the  bomb?"  said  he. 

"No,  what  bomb  ?" 

"A  bomb  has  just  been  thrown  at  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  while 
he  was  passing  from  the  Palace  to  his  residence.  The  chief 
of  his  bodyguard  has  been  killed,  with  several  horses,  and 
altogether  about  thirty  people  wounded." 

My  sensations  were  somewhat  like  those  of  another  occa- 
sion when  the  war  opened  between  Japan  and  Russia  and  the 
first  shells  of  the  Japanese  fleet  fell  in  Port  Arthur.  The 
attempts  upon  the  life  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  seemed  to  be  the 
announcement  that  the  Republic  had  come  to  Peking.  I 
thought  it  all  over  slowly,  took  a  field  camera  and  went  out  to 
look  over  the  scene.  The  police  had  rapidly  cleared  the 
streets  for  about  a  mile  abreast  the  East  Gate  of  the 
Imperial  City  and  were  searching  the  adjacent  houses.  A  few 
foreigners  were  permitted  to  pass  the  spot  where  the  bomb 
had  exploded,  and  there  was  a  wrecked  hydrant  and  a  dead 
horse.  The  Premier's  carriage  had  instantly  changed  its  route 
and  passed  on,  arriving  home  before  another  horse  fell  dead. 
It  escaped  other  assassins  believed  to  have  been  posted  at  two 
or  three  places.  Arrests  of  the  assassins  in  a  tea-shop  oppo- 
site where  the  bomb  fell  followed  in  a  few  moments.  The 
street  was  patrolled  by  an  increased  guard  for  twenty-four 
hours.  An  arm  of  the  Republican  bomb-throwers  operating 

49 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

from  Tientsin  was  said  to  have  furnished  the  men  for  this 
deed — which  men  disappeared  after  the  announcement  that 
they  had  been  tried  and  found  guilty. 

The  fire  struck  at  Cheng-tu  in  Szechuan  on  the  borders  of 
Tibet  in  September,  and  which  blazed  up  at  Wuchang  in 
October  and  at  Shanghai  and  Canton  in  November,  had  now 
flashed  out  in  Peking. 


CHAPTER  VI 
WHEN   SZECHUAN   REVOLTED 

THE  bomb  of  the  assassin  seemed  to  shift  the  comparison 
from  the  soil  of  France  to  that  of  Russia.  The  causes 
of  revolution,  however,  remain  the  same,  regardless 
of  the  weapons  employed.  Comparison  with  France  in  the 
Revolution  still  holds  good.  It  is  hunger  that  always  precedes 
revolt,  and  from  the  famine  zone  on  the  sea  to  the  mountains 
of  Tibet,  China  was  hungry.  And  she  was  rebellious  in  all 
her  hunger  zone. 

All  that  had  happened  in  Peking  was  but  a  reflection  of 
what  had  happened  in  Central  China.  The  great  events  of 
the  "Republic"  had  begun  four  months  before.  Their  causes 
go  back  years.  Just  after  the  year  986  A.  D.  rebellion  broke 
out  in  Szechuan,  "due  to  the  extreme  poverty  and  misery  of 
the  people,  aggravated  by  the  unscrupulous  rapacity  of  the 
local  magistrates."  It  is  not  necessary  to  go  back  of  the  ninth 
century,  nor  even  so  far  as  the  ninth  century,  to  explain  how 
the  torch  of  twentieth-century  rebellion  was  lighted  for  China 
in  Szechuan. 

In  1905,  the  Chinese,  believing  that  American  capitalists 
had  illegally  transferred  a  concession  for  a  great  trunk-line 
railway  from  Canton  to  Hankow  to  the  Belgians,  caused  its 
restoration  to  themselves,  though  at  a  costly  money  sacrifice, 
in  the  form  of  indemnity  to  the  American  concessionaires. 
They  began  what  was  called  the  "rights  recovery"  movement, 
by  which  China  forced  foreign  concessionaires  to  return  to  her 
vast  coal,  iron,  and  oil  lands  in  Shansi,  rich  copper  mines  in 
Anhuei,  railway  rights  in  Chekiang,  and  tin  mines  in  Yunnan. 
The  people  thus  put  an  end  to  the  granting  of  railway  and 
all  other  concessions  to  foreigners  by  their  Central  Govern- 
ment. 

In   1909  the  people  discovered  that  foreign  capital  and 

Si 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

enterprise  were  securing  the  same  advantages  through  loans 
to  the  Central  Government  for  the  development  of  provincial 
resources,  and  that  the  National  Government  had  evolved  an 
enormous  scheme  for  nationalising  railways  whereby  the  prof- 
its of  railways  were  lost  to  the  people.  The  foreign  money- 
lenders had  banded  together,  and  now  the  Central  Government 
at  Peking  by  a  four-Power  loan  from  British,  French,  Ger- 
man, and  American  financial  syndicates,  of  £6,000,000  (to  be 
increased  to  £10,000,000),  in  1910  was  to  build  railways  in 
three  directions  out  of  Hankow.  For  nearly  two  years  the 
people  prevented  the  ratification  of  these  plans.  Then,  Janu- 
ary, 1911,  the  Throne  brought  a  distinguished  Chinese  "prince 
of  industry,"  Sheng  Hsuan-huai,  from  Shanghai  to  Peking, 
as  Minister  of  Posts  and  Communications,  to  consummate  its 
plans  and  policy.  The  £6,000,000  loan  was  concluded,  and 
another  of  £10,000,000  to  reform  the  currency,  as  well  as  two 
smaller  loans. 

One  of  these  railways  out  of  Hankow  was  to  penetrate 
Szechuan.  But  Szechuan  had  already  organised  the  Szechuan 
Railway  Company  to  build  this  railway  with  Chinese  capital. 
By  1911  the  funds  from  the  sale  of  shares  by  the  Szechuan 
Railway  Company  had  been  embezzled.  Left  without  either 
money  or  railway  and  threatened  with  being  dispossessed  by 
the  National  Government,  the  people  reached  a  state  of  acute 
exasperation  and  formed  an  anti  foreign-loan  society,  called 
the  "Tong  Chi  Huei"  (Patriots'  Society),  to  combat  the  Gov- 
ernment. 

The  spread  of  the  cause  was  shown  in  the  latter  part  of 
August,  when  a  strike  of  the  schools  throughout  the  province 
occurred.  At  Cheng-tu,  the  provincial  Capital,  where  the 
movement  was  centred,  a  large  meeting  was  called  by  this 
Society,  and  it  became,  so  lively  that  the  members  threw  their 
teacups  at  the  four  taot'ais  present  representing  the  Provincial 
Government.  The  meeting  passed  a  resolution  to  stop  all 
public  business  as  well  as  all  payments  of  taxes  until  the  dis- 
pute with  the  National  Government  was  settled.  The  Cheng- 
tu  shopmen  began  putting  up  the  shutters  of  their  shops,  en- 
couraged where  there  was  any  hesitation  by  entreaties  from 

52 


FAT  OFFICIALS  AND  THE  LEAN  PEOPLE        THE  MANDARIN  AND  THE  FOREIGN- 
Z,ea.»i  Owe:  ''I  grow  lean."  ERS:  THE  RARE  BIRD 

Fai  One:      "I  grow  fat." 


WHEN    SZECHUAN    REVOLTED 

the  crowds.  It  was  at  the  time  of  the  Moon  festival,  and  any 
delinquent  shopkeeper  was  first  showered  with  moon-cakes, 
and  if  he  resisted  was  subject  to  a  battery  of  mud,  then  stones, 
and  assaults  upon  his  wares. 

Soldiers  were  called  out,  and  patrolled  the  City  with  fixed 
bayonets.  Food  rose  in  price,  and  the  anti  foreign-loan 
society  made  collections  to  feed  the  poor,  "so  no  excuse  could 
exist  for  lawlessness."  Only  the  rice-shops  were  allowed  to 
open.  By  September  28  all  the  towns  in  central  Szechuan  had 
closed  their  shops  in  sympathy  with  the  movement  to  boycott 
the  railway  loan. 

A  proclamation  from  the  Viceroy  Chao  Er-feng  at  once 
forced  the  shops  to  open,  but  it  also  ended  the  passive  resist- 
ance of  the  people.  The  anti  foreign-loan  society  was  in- 
censed by  the  appointment  of  the  distinguished  ex- Viceroy 
and  scholar,  Tuan  Fang,  as  Director-General  of  Railways  to 
take  charge  of  railway  matters.  Seeing  popular  rights  be- 
ing gradually  overthrown  it  began  active  resistance  to  the 
Provincial  and  National  Governments. 

A  slip  of  paper  was  posted  up  over  the  City  before  which 
the  people  began  burning  candles  and  incense.  It  had  three 
inscriptions.  That  on  the  right  read:  "The  different  policies 
are  to  be  decided  by  public  opinion."  That  on  the  left :  "The 
Szechuan  Railway  is  hereby  permitted  to  be  constructed  by  the 
people  privately."  The  central  inscription  read:  "The  tablet 
for  the  spirit  of  His  [late]  Majesty,  Kuang  Hsu,  the  Virtuous 
Ancestor  and  Emperor  of  the  great  Ching  Dynasty." 

The  people  here  and  there  in  the  country  began  smashing 
the  tax  offices  (salt  and  likin)  and  the  Viceroy  who  was  pre- 
pared for  the  disorder  executed  nineteen  looters  in  one  place 
and  a  similar  number  in  another. 

"This  speaks  for  itself,"  wrote  an  observer  from  that  dis- 
tant realm  of  45,000,000  restless,  rising  people.  "It  proves 
what  I  wrote  you  before;  that  there  is  more  in  it  than  an 
organised  resistance  to  the  Peking  railway  policy;  there  is 
a  deep-seated  hatred  of  the  scandalous  ways  the  officials  have 
been  squeezing  the  people  of  late  years. 

"The  cartoons  issued  in  the  city  I  find  are  becoming  slan- 

53 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

derous,"  he  continued,  "one  or  two  depict  the  horrors  of  the 
Indians  in  India  under  the  reign  of  the  British.  A  bad  one  is 
out  this  morning — hawkers  are  selling  it  through  the  streets." 

When  the  anti  foreign-loan  society  at  Cheng-tu  got 
ready  to  present  its  demands  to  the  Viceroy  and  take  posses- 
sion of  the  Provincial  Government  it  distributed  placards  say- 
ing that  the  resident  foreigners  were  in  no  way  connected  with 
the  agitation.  It  sent  speakers  into  the  streets  who  took  up 
prominent  positions  and  repeated  to  the  people :  "Don't  touch 
the  foreigner  or  his  property  or  our  cause  is  doomed." 

Secret  societies  circulated  the  report  that  the  Viceroy  Chao 
Er-feng  could  not  depend  on  his  troops  as  many  of  them 
were  secretly  members  of  the  new  movement,  that  he  was 
afraid  to  act.  His  soubriquet  among  the  people  was  "The 
Executioner."  He  was  something  of  a  despot.  Both  sides 
knew  that  it  was  a  game  of  heads. 

In  the  forenoon  of  September  6,  1911,  "The  Executioner" 
got  documentary  evidence  of  the  secret  plans  of  the  anti 
foreign-loan  society  through  a  student  who  visited  his  ya- 
men  (official  headquarters)  in  the  guise  of  a  seer,  and  secured 
audience  with  the  Viceroy  under  the  plea  that  in  a  dream  he 
had  witnessed  the  destruction  of  the  provincial  capital  which 
would  occur  on  the  sixteenth  of  the  moon — September  8. 
When  presented  he  exhibited  some  antics  in  imitation  of  fa- 
miliar Chinese  demoniac  performances  during  which  he 
handed  the  Viceroy  a  copy  of  the  book  of  Preparation  show- 
ing the  ultimate  plans  and  ends  of  the  anti  foreign-loan  so- 
ciety. It  was  a  scene  suggesting  Rome  under  the  Caesars  and 
the  soothsayer's  "Beware  the  Ides  of  March";  or  of  the 
Egypt  of  the  Pharaohs. 

The  Viceroy  through  the  senior  Consul-General,  the 
British,  sent  word  at  once  to  all  foreigners  to  collect  without 
delay  at  the  Canadian  Mission  Hospital  in  Tzu-shen-tzu 
Street.  The  first  foreigners  to  assemble  arrived  at  5  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  and  at  1 1  o'clock  all  but  two  or  three  families 
had  been  gathered  in.  The  Ko-lao-huei,  or  Elder  Brother  So- 
ciety, an  ancient  secret  organisation,  spread  the  rumour  that 
"The  Executioner"  was  going  to  attack  the  anti  foreign-loan 

54 


WHEN    SZECHUAN    REVOLTED 

society  at  midnight.  But  he  did  not  act  until  the  forenoon 
of  September  7.  Then  he  telephoned  the  leaders  that  he  had 
just  received  an  important  communication  from  Peking  about 
which  he  wished  to  consult  them  privately  and  he  invited  them 
to  his  yamen.  "->-.'" 

Pu  Tien-chun,  Lo  Lun,  Teng  Hsiao-k'o,  Chang  Lan  and 
Wang  Min-hsin,  the  leaders,  responded.  The  Viceroy  re- 
ceived them  in  person  and  served  them  with  tea.  A  meeting 
of  the  directors  of  the  railway  bureau  and  the  anti  foreign- 
loan  society,  in  fact  a  revolutionary  council,  was  cordonned 
with  soldiers.  Two  of  the  important  leaders  of  the  anti- 
Government  movement,  Yen  Chia  and  Hu  Yung,  who  had  re- 
fused the  Viceroy's  invitation,  were  seized  in  their  houses. 
Under  pretext  of  fire  in  the  City,  "kindled  by  'The  Execu- 
tioner's' orders,"  said  a  secret  society  member,  troops  closed 
the  City  gates  and  took  possession  of  the  streets.  For  weeks 
past  three  or  four  vernacular  newspapers  had  been  fomenting 
the  agitation,  and  their  editors  were  now  seized  at  their  news- 
paper office  doors,  and  the  doors  shut  and  sealed. 

"Why  have  you  compelled  the  merchants  to  close  their 
shops,  and  persuaded  the  people  to  refuse  to  pay  their  taxes  ?" 
said  "The  Executioner"  to  his  guests.  "I  have  always  treated 
you  kindly,  why  are  you  so  unkind  to  me  and  to  your  coun- 
try? I  have  reported  your  conduct  to  our  Emperor.  Do  you 
understand  the  position  you  have  placed  yourselves  in?  To- 
day I  have  prepared  dinner  for  you " 

At  this  "The  Executioner"  called  out  to  his  retainers: 
"Sung  K'eh"  (Escort  the  guests).  Soldiers  guarding  the  audi- 
ence hall  stepped  in,  seized  the  leaders  before  they  could  resist 
and  bound  them.  They  were  searched.  Documents  and  papers 
were  brought  from  the  railway  bureau  offices  and  from  the 
anti  foreign-loan  society  (Patriotic  Society)  headquarters. 
Ten  agitators  and  leaders  were  arrested  and  imprisoned. 

While  this  action  was  going  on  the  Viceroy's  agents 
posted  a  proclamation  in  the  streets  announcing  Lo  Lun's 
arrest  and  ordering  the  tablets  and  staging  erected  by  the 
anti  foreign-loan  society  taken  down.  Cavalry  galloped 
through  the  streets  taking  the  people  by  surprise  and  stamped- 

55 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

ing  them.  The  soldiers  pulled  down  and  destroyed  the 
brightly  ornamented  platform  erected  in  the  market  place  in 
the  centre  of  the  City  and  threw  down  the  shrines  that  had 
been  set  up  for  the  worship  of  the  martyr  Emperor  Kuang 
Hsu,  with  whose  name  and  wrongs  was  associated  the  title  of 
the  people  to  the  building  of  their  railways. 

When  it  became  known  that  the  leaders  of  the  anti  for- 
eign-loan society  were  imprisoned  in  the  yamen,  a  crowd  of 
students  rushed  to  demand  their  release.  Men,  women,  and 
children  appeared  from  every  quarter,  bearing  lighted  incense 
in  one  hand,  and  the  desecrated  yellow  paper  spirit  tablets 
of  the  Emperor  from  their  broken  shrines  in  the  other,  and 
pressed  toward  the  yamen.  Sympathizers  arrived  from  out- 
side the  City  and  joining  the  throng  in  Great  East  Street 
— the  main  artery  of  the  City — turned  into  the  side  streets  and 
in  a  mob  of  several  thousand  strong  surged  clamorously  about 
the  Viceroy's  gate.  As  they  swayed  hither  and  thither  they 
cried : 

"Give  us  back  our  Lo  Lun,  give  us  back  our  Lo  Lun," 
meaning  their  leader. 

The  soldiers  exhorted  the  people  to  disperse. 

The  people  answered  demanding  their  leader. 

"K'ai  p'ao"  (Open  fire) — a  volley  went  into  the  air. 
Screams — howls —  Men  fell  or  fled  in  all  directions,  or  were 
trampled  down.  Thirteen  persons  were  instantly  killed  and 
more  than  that  number  wounded.  Men  were  wounded 
throughout  the  City  and  at  dark  crowds  still  surged  in  the 
streets. 

Rain  commenced  at  nightfall  and  continued  throughout 
the  8th.  The  secret  societies  who  controlled  the  militia  joined 
their  fraternity  members  of  the  surrounding  region  and  con- 
centrated outside  the  East  and  South  Gates  where  they  en- 
gaged the  Viceroy's  troops. 

September  9  military  law  began,  when  the  City  was  closed 
to  all  except  those  having  passes.  The  public  granaries  were 
thrown  open  so  that  the  people  might  have  rice.  September 
10,  most  of  the  merchants  opened  their  shops. 

One  hundred  and  sixty-six  foreigners  exclusive  of  Japanese 

56 


WHEN    SZECHUAN    REVOLTED 

— the  ever  present  "Allies" — were  shut  up  in  Cheng-tu.  One 
hundred  and  twenty-four  of  these  were  in  refuge  at  the  Cana- 
dian Methodist  Mission.  Hear  the  words  of  one  of  these 
writing  September  10: 

"Reports  of  the  coming  of  the  militia  threw  the  city  into 
a  panic.  Children  screamed  in  the  streets  and  older  voices 
cried :  'They  are  coming,  they  are  coming !'  During  church 
services  someone  shouted  through  the  window,  'Get  the  women 
and  children  out  the  back  way.  If  they  go  in  the  street  they 
will  be  shot.'  Houses  were  suddenly  closed  and  all  gates 
bolted.  Then  the  soldiers  passed  the  word  that  it  was  a  false 
alarm.  But  it  was  a  'Sunday  closing.' 

"Three  of  our  colony  who  went  out  of  the  city  just  before 
the  gates  closed  to  collect  their  belongings  from  their  houses 
on  the  University  site  caused  uneasiness  by  their  failure  to  re- 
turn. On  account  of  engagements  between  the  militia  and 
the  yamen  troops  in  the  vicinity  of  their  houses,  they  were 
prevented  from  returning  until  9  o'clock  on  the  night  of  the 
9th,  when  they  were  escorted  back  by  soldiers.  Others  had 
come  in  at  2  o'clock  in  the  morning  under  escort.  The  Viceroy 
has  requested  that  no  foreigners  leave  the  city  but  remain 
under  his  protection  and  refrain  from  going  into  the  streets 
as  much  as  possible.  There  is  fighting  all  around  Cheng-tu, 
the  roads  are  blocked  for  days,  and  the  wires  are  all  cut. 

"The  troops  are  trying  to  reopen  the  road  to  Chungking. 
They  report  communications  possible  between  Cheng-tu  and 
Tze-chow.  Two  hundred  rebels  and  four  soldiers  are  re- 
ported killed  at  one  place;  100  rebels  killed  and  two  soldiers 
wounded  at  another.  Seventeen  soldiers  have  been  massacred 
at  a  feast  through  trickery,  only  three  of  their  party  escaping." 

The  British  Consul-General  writes  to  his  colleague  at 
Chungking : 

"Can  you  get  messages  up  to  Cheng-tu,  in  particular  the 
telegrams  which  must  have  accumulated  at  Tze-chow?  The 
fu-t'ou  (driver)  of  a  baggage  train  might  be  one  way — a 
single  messenger  would  be  stopped  by  insurgents  and  searched. 

57 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

Perhaps  a  fairly  large  box  addressed  to  me  in  English  and 
Chinese  might  get  through,  just  as  these  cases  today  have 
got  through,  where  a  single  letter  would  be  seized.  Pack  the 
telegrams  in  an  empty  tin  surrounded  by  unopened  tins  of  any 
kind  of  stores,  groceries,  etc.,  for  which  of  course  I  will  pay." 

To  the  Viceroy  Chao  Er-feng  he  wrote  asking  that  in 
view  of  the  now  apparently  peaceful  state  of  the  City  some 
of  the  foreign  residents  might  return  to  their  homes  about 
the  capital  and  the  Viceroy  replied : 

"In  all  directions  just  now  there  are  large  bands  of  marau- 
ders, some  thousands  strong,  whose  object  is  to  rush  the  City. 
Precautions  cannot  be  laid  aside,  and  gates  have  been  closed. 
Inside  the  City,  moreover  tranquillity  is  not  yet  restored,  and 
it  is  impossible  not  to  exercise  more  than  ordinary  care. 

"The  return  to  their  old  abodes  of  the  gentlemen  of  your 
honourable  country  and  of  all  other  foreigners,  should  be 
postponed  for  a  time.  When  all  is  settled  inside  the  city  and 
out,  I  will  again  write  and  action  can  be  taken." 

Shadow  and  sunlight  in  Cheng-tu  are  mingled  in  the  voice 
of  the  missionary  refugee  at  this  repulse : 

"September  15.  Raining  steadily  all  day,"  he  writes. 
"We  had  a  concert  tonight  to  keep  up  the  good  spirits  of  the 
colony."  And  again.  "The  Viceroy  seems  to  be  getting  mat- 
ters pretty  well  in  hand.  Everything  points  to  an  early  settle- 
ment of  the  trouble." 

So  closes  the  account  of  the  bystander  in  the  Capital  of 
Szechuan.  Exit  the  bystander;  Chao  Er-feng,  the  Viceroy, 
is  talking  with  the  Throne. 


CHAPTER  VII 
WHEN   SZECHUAN   FELL 

CHAO  ER-FENG,  the  Viceroy,  has  already  announced 
to  the  Throne,  the  conspiracy,  and  recapitulated  all 
the  events  of  the  railway  dispute  and  uprising  of  the 
anti  foreign-loan  society  and  he  says: 

"Since  the  attack  perpetrated  by  the  rebellious  people  upon 
the  Viceregal  yamen  September  7  several  thousand  volunteers 
of  the  people  of  Ta-mien-pu  and  Niu-shi-kao  concentrated 
just  outside  the  City  on  the  same  evening.  On  subsequent 
days  there  arrived  from  each  of  the  ten  and  more  districts 
around  Cheng-tu  several  divisions  of  the  people's  volunteers, 
every  division  numbering  from  a  few  thousand  to  ten  thou- 
sand men.  They  pillaged,  burnt,  and  committed  all  kinds  of 
atrocities  along  their  routes  causing  the  people  nearby  to  flee. 
The  army  and  the  guardsmen  of  the  defence  force,  were  at 
once  ordered  to  meet  and  punish  them.  But  these  Volunteer 
corps,  relying  upon  their  numerical  strength,  surrounded  the 
City  on  all  sides  and  opened  fire  with  their  guns,  wounding 
and  killing  some  soldiers.  When  they  were  fired  on  in  return 
they  dared  to  hold  out  in  defiance  until  death.  It  was  not  until 
they  were  utterly  unable  to  make  resistance  that  they  retreated. 

"Later  there  was  a  great  mass  meeting  of  several  thousand 
rebellious  volunteers  on  the  crest  of  the  Lung-chuan  Hill, 
about  fifty  li  (sixteen  odd  miles)  in  distance  from  the  capital 
City  where  the  strategical  points  were  all  guarded  and  guns 
were  put  up  in  position,  declaring  that  they  would  march  on 
and  attack  the  capital  City. 

"When  Government  troops  proceeded  there  punish  them, 
the  rebels  fired  upon  them.  The  soldiers  resolutely  assaulted 
their  positions  under  cover  of  night,  and  occupied  the  hilltops, 
capturing  several  tens  of  big  guns,  innumerable  small  firearms, 
cartridges,  swords  and  other  weapons.  The  rebels  escaped 

59 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

down  the  hill  in  disorder.  At  the  same  time,  the  rebels  in  the 
West  direction,  in  Si-pu,  Chung-ho  and  other  places,  had  also 
been  repulsed  by  the  troops. 

"A  branch  party  of  the  rebels  then  surrounded  and  bom- 
barded the  city  of  the  Shuang-liu  district,  burnt  its  barriers, 
streets  and  temples,  and  the  siege  was  only  raised  after  con- 
fronting them  a  whole  day  and  night  with  the  troops.  They 
flocked  to  Si-pu  and  Chung-ho,  and  then  to  Tang-chia-tzu, 
at  each  of  which  places  the  rebels  were  successively  defeated 
and  beat  a  retreat. 

"From  September  8  continuous  battles  raged  for  seven 
days,  in  which  a  great  number  of  rebels  were  captured  or 
killed  and  over  two  thousand  swords,  lances,  standards  and 
banners  secured.  The  telegraph  lines  had  been  cut  in  all  direc- 
tions; dispatch  of  documents  by  couriers  had  been  prevented 
and  in  some  cases  the  bearers  were  searched  and  killed.  At 
present  alarming  reports  from  different  places  are  still  pouring 
in.  It  is  intended  that  as  soon  as  the  repairs  to  the  City  shall 
have  been  concluded,  punitive  expeditions  are  to  be  sent  after 
the  rebels.  Those  ignorant  people  who  have  been  forced  to 
join  the  rebellion,  when  captured  and  brought  in  now  and 
then,  have  been  enlightened  as  to  their  foolishness  and  lib- 
erated." 

The  Viceroy's  account  accepted  by  the  Throne  seemed  to 
agree  with  the  observation  of  the  bystander  as  to  an  early 
settlement  of  the  trouble. 

Herewith  the  Throne : 

"The  procedure  of  the  Viceroy  and  his  forces  has  been 
tolerably  well-suited  to  the  occasion.  Judging  from  the  previ- 
ous distribution  by  the  rebels  of  their  military  orders  by 
means  of  wooden  sticks,  their  rebellious  conspiracy  is  amply 
proved  to  have  been  concocted  not  in  a  day.  When  their 
treacherous  plot  was  discovered,  their  rising  was  echoed  and 
supported  in  all  four  quarters.  In  a  word,  the  peace  of  the 
populace  was  destroyed.  Truly  they  must  have  been  deliber- 
ately intentional  in  causing  this  revolution.  Such  disloyal  and 

60 


WHEN    SZECHUAN    FELL 

treasonable  manifestations  have  been  apparent  to  all  eyes. 
Their  depredations  should  not  be  permitted  at  all,  but  speedy 
means  for  their  extirpation  should  be  adopted. 

"As  the  Hupeh  army  has  already  reached  Szechuan,  and 
reinforcements  from  Kueichou  province  have  started  on  their 
march,  Chao  Er-feng  is  hereby  again  commanded  strictly  to 
direct  all  the  forces  to  punish  or  disperse  the  rebels  in  their 
several  directions,  permitting  no  growth  of  the  rebel  strength 
day  by  day.  He  shall  still  exercise  a  discrimination  between 
the  good  and  the  bad  and  administer  punishment  or  consola- 
tion accordingly.  All  those  foolish  people,  compelled  by  the 
rebels  to  join  them,  are  hereby  pardoned.  Let  him  issue  a 
proclamation  throughout  his  province  and  devise  proper 
means  for  the  future  welfare  of  the  people,  keeping  it  in  view 
to  spare  as  many  as  possible  so  as  to  dissipate  suspicions  and 
alarms. 

"He  shall  still  continue  to  report  to  Us  by  telegraph  what 
he  has  done  from  time  to  time." 

In  our  Chinese  Versailles,  the  Manchus,  who  had  for  a 
long  time  been  looking  for  worse  things  than  had  until  now 
happened  in  Szechuan  or  elsewhere  in  the  Empire,  were  al- 
ready started  on  that  course  of  belated  measures  that  to  our 
critics  placed  them  parallel  to  the  House  of  Bourbon.  The 
"Wisdom  Opener"  of  Cheng-tu,  the  leading  revolutionary 
newspaper  there,  among  its  rebellious  articles  preceding  the 
outbreak  published  successive  cartoons  showing  Sheng  Hsuan- 
huai  dragged  forth  to  execution  from  his  burning  house.  The 
anti  foreign-loan  society  and  the  railway  bureau  sent  such 
cogent  telegrams  to  their  fellow-provincials  in  Peking  that  a 
grand  meeting  was  called  of  Szechuanese  at  the  Peking  Sze- 
chuan Guild.  As  a  result  a  joint  petition  by  Szechuan  officials 
denouncing  Sheng  and  demanding  his  dismissal  was  handed 
to  the  Board  of  Censors  and  the  authors  of  the  petition 
threatened  to  resign  their  positions  en  bloc,  if  it  was  not 
acted  upon.  The  Censors  petitioned  the  Throne  to  have  the 
case  of  the  railway  agitation  by  the  Szechuanese  thoroughly 
investigated  in  order  "to  maintain  the  normal  position  and  to 

61 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

suppress  the  disturbing  element."  September  14,  the  Throne 
appointed  Tsen  Chun-hsuan,  a  former  popular  Viceroy  of 
Szechuan,  to  return  there  and  take  charge  of  all  military  mat- 
ters, and  an  even  more  celebrated  man,  Tuan  Fang,  to  proceed 
at  once  to  Szechuan  to  arrange  all  railway  difficulties.  Both 
were  instructed  to  use  the  utmost  clemency  in  dealing  with 
the  people.  Chao  Er-feng  was  to  continue  the  administration 
of  civil  and  general  affairs.  The  two  civil  dignitaries  looked 
for  the  first  means  to  ingratiate  themselves  with  the  people 
as  measures  of  safety  for  themselves  in  the  desperate  region 
to  which  they  were  going. 

Tsen  began  his  work  with  a  memorial  to  the  Throne  asking 
that  as  the  state  ownership  of  railways  was  unalterable  the 
losses  of  the  people  through  the  railway  bureau  and  the  em- 
bezzlement of  the  proceeds  of  the  Szechuan  Railway  Com- 
pany's shares,  be  paid  by  the  Board  of  Posts  and  Communica- 
tions. He  requested  also  that  Viceroy  Chao  Er-feng  be 
ordered  to  release  the  people's  leaders. 

Tuan  Fang  began  his  work  by  issuing  a  proclamation  to 
the  people  of  Szechuan  saying :  "I  have  been  appointed  to 
come  to  Szechuan  solely  to  make  known  the  benevolent  inten- 
tions of  the  Throne.  The  troops  I  am  bringing  with  me  are 
simply  for  the  purpose  of  suppressing  brigands.  The  object 
of  the  Throne  in  taking  over  the  railways  is  that  of  their 
great  importance  to  the  State,  and  it  is  taking  over  the  rail- 
way in  Szechuan  because  that  railway  is  especially  difficult  to 
construct.  It  costs  from  taels  15,000  to  16,000  a  li  (say  $10,- 
ooo  to  $13,000 — gold  value — per  mile)  and  will  take  from  ten 
to  twenty  years  to  finish.  The  construction  of  this  road  is  a 
burden  greater  than  the  Szechuan  people  can  bear  and  is  likely 
to  reduce  them  to  poverty  before  they  can  get  through  with  it. 
As  a  special  favor  the  Government  takes  over  this  burden 
from  the  Szechuan  people  and  puts  a  stop  to  enforced  sub- 
scriptions proposing  to  provide  all  the  necessary  funds  itself. 
The  people  of  Szechuan  ought  to  have  been  delighted  and 
grateful  for  this  favor,  but  instead  of  that  busybodies  have 
been  declaring  that  the  Government  is  robbing  them,  and  that 
in  connection  with  the  loans  they  will  lose  their  independence. 

62 


WHEN    SZECHUAN    FELL 

They  do  net  know  that  the  Imperial  Railways  of  North  China 
and  the  Peking-Hankow  Railway  were  built  with  foreign 
money  and  that  they  have  been  extremely  lucrative  enterprises 
to  the  country  without  its  losing  a  grain  of  its  independence. 
Further  the  new  loan  agreements  are  much  more  favorable  to 
China  than  those  under  which  the  previous  railways  were 
built.  These  things  they  did  not  inquire  into,  but  proceeded  to 
raise  disturbances,  shutting  the  schools,  closing  down  the  mar- 
kets, refusing  to  pay  taxes,  and  in  every  way  acting  like 
rebels.  They  did  not  think  that  the  real  rebels  would  use 
this  opportunity  given  them  to  plunder  the  people,  to  kill  your 
sons  and  daughters,  to  burn  and  destroy  till  you  all  had  tasted 
the  miseries  of  insurrection.  For  brigands  of  that  sort  the 
Throne  has  no  mercy,  and  it  has  sent  me  to  deal  with  them 
alone.  Now  the  books  [of  Preparations]  containing  the 
names  of  those  who  formed  societies  are  to  be  burned.  Al- 
though the  railway  belongs  to  the  State,  it  will  still  be  the 
people's  railway.  New  shares  will  be  given  by  the  Govern- 
ment for  the  old.  Let  there  be  no  more  trouble  so  that  the 
railway  can  be  built,  the  Throne  gratified,  myself  gratified  and 
all  the  people  of  Szechuan  will  reap  the  benefit." 

These  telegrams  between  the  Throne  and  its  high  com- 
missioners to  Szechuan,  and  the  Viceroy  there,  show  some  of 
the  methods  of  the  Revolutionists  but  especially  the  most  ac- 
complished methods  of  procedure  of  the  so-called  astute  and 
wily  "Chinese"  officials  as  well  as  the  naivete  and  gaucherie  of 
the  Government  at  Peking.  But  in  this  case  these  methods 
were  only  leading  to  a  terrible  tragedy. 

Tuan  Fang  continued  up  the  Yangtse  River  into  Szechuan 
from  where  he  sent  to  the  Throne  the  last  words  it  ever  re- 
ceived from  him. 

"The  market  strikers  and  school  strikers  in  Szechuan 
neither  killed  officials  or  officers,  nor  robbed  the  barns  or 
treasuries.  They  were  emphatically  not  rebels  bent  upon 
creating  disturbances. 

"The  fire  (in  Cheng-tu)  September  7  broke  out  accident- 
ally from  a  private  house  in  South  Gold-Beating  Street.  Ow- 
ing to  the  arrest  of  Pu  Tien-chun,  Lo  Lun  and  others  the 

63 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

people  went  to  the  yamen  to  request  their  release.  Comman- 
der Tien  Cheng-kuei  shot  the  people  down,  unordered,  killing 
several  tens  of  merchants  in  the  street.  The  people  in  the 
neighbourhood  heard  this  and  presented  themselves  before  the 
City  with  heads  covered  with  white  cloth  to  pray  for  mercy 
for  their  fellow  people.  Several  tens  of  them  were  also  shot 
dead.  Now  their  feelings  were  quite  aroused. 

"As  to  the  distribution  of  their  book  named  'Self-Preserva- 
tion of  Merchants'  Rights'  no  characters  meaning  independ- 
ence appear  therein  and  neither  the  chops  (seals)  of  the  Tung 
Chi  Huei  (Patriots'  Society)  nor  those  representing  the  schol- 
ars' meeting  are  attached  thereto.  On  the  contrary,  sentences 
such  as :  'Millions  of  generations  for  the  Imperial  Throne' 
are  included  in  its  contents.  But  this  book  was  not  penned  by 
Pu  Tien-chun,  Lo  Lun  or  by  others  of  the  gentry.  The  spir- 
itual tablet  and  the  blood-written  letters  which  have  been 
stopped  were  not  the  work  of  the  Szechuan  scholars,  but  were 
forged  by  rebels. 

"Chou  Shan-pei,  Wang  Tan,  Jao  Feng-tsao  and  other 
officials,  owing  the  gentry  a  grudge  on  account  of  the  Pro- 
vincial Assembly's  having  impeached  them,  had  purposely 
made  out  a  hideous  case  to  harm  them. 

"The  question  of  not  paying  taxes  and  dues  was  proposed 
by  a  united  meeting  of  the  officials  and  the  gentry,  but  it  was 
only  a  proposal  to  defer  these  payments,  and  to  discharge  the 
land  taxes  by  the  interest  due  [on  the  railway  capital].  The 
shareholders  were  not  in  reality  to  collect  or  receive  taxes  and 
dues  of  the  Government." 

Next  the  Throne's  last  reply  to  Tuan  Fang: 

"Since  the  present  incident  in  Szechuan  resulting  in  ex- 
pensive devastation  ha%  been  investigated  and  found  by  Tuan 
Fang  to  have  originated  in  differences  between  the  officials 
and  the  people,  the  territorial  officials  who  mismanaged  their 
duties  should  certainly  be  punished  in  proportion  to  their  de- 
serts. Wang  Jen-yen,  formerly  officiating  as  Viceroy  of 
Szechuan,  and  Chao  Er-feng,  the  present  Acting  Viceroy  of 
Szechuan,  cannot  be  exonerated  from  blame,  for,  holding  the 
government  of  a  province,  they  have  failed  effectively  to  con- 

64 


WHEN    SZECHUAN    FELL 

trol  the  situation  at  the  outset  and  afterwards  to  suppress  the 
trouble.  Wang  Jen-sen  and  Chao  Er-feng  are  both  handed 
to  the  Cabinet  for  the  consideration  of  a  penalty.  Tien  Cheng- 
kuei,  acting  Commander  of  the  Sung-pan  Military  Circuit, 
Director  of  the  General  Staff,  and  an  expectant  Taotai,  hav- 
ing acted  most  recklessly  in  greedy  hope  of  achieving  success, 
and  having  killed  common  people  without  authority  is  hereby 
cashiered  instantly,  and  ordered  to  be  deported  to  the  hinter- 
land of  Tibet  and  to  render  some  signal  service  in  expiation 
of  his  crime.  Chou  Shan-pei,  industrial  Taotai  acting  as  Com- 
missioner of  Justice  has  been  frivolous  and  fond  of  creating 
trouble,  inconsistent  in  method  and  treacherous  in  intent; 
Wang  Tan  and  Wang  Tze,  expectant  Taotais,  engendered  ill- 
feeling  among  the  gentry  and  merchants,  and  made  their 
names  notoriously  odious,  these  three  are  hereby  cashiered 
instantly.  Jao  Feng-tsao,  expectant  Taotai,  young  and  in- 
experienced, has  been  adversely  criticised  by  the  public;  he 
is  hereby  degraded  to  the  rank  of  Sub-Prefect,  to  give  him 
a  warning." 

Thus  reversing  the  action  of  the  Viceroy  Chao  Er-feng, 
the  Throne  therein  released  Lo  Lun,  Pu  Tien-chung  and  the 
seven  other  leaders,  and  these  were  taken  under  the  care  of 
the  Tartar-General  at  Cheng-tu  to  prevent  their  being  killed 
by  Viceroy  Chao,  "The  Executioner,"  in  a  fit  of  bloodthirsti- 
ness. 

Tuan  Fang  deserves  well  of  foreigners.  He  had  saved 
many  from  massacre  in  Shensi  Province  in  the  Boxer  year. 
He  was  an  enlightened  progressive  man  who  had  contributed 
to  the  future  provisional  Republican  capital,  Nanking,  all  that 
had  been  done  to  make  it  modern  and  progressive.  He  had 
suffered  undeserved  ill  at  the  hands  of  the  young  men,  Prince 
Chun  and  his  brothers  in  charge  of  the  Throne,  and  for  this 
Throne  he  was  about  to  lay  down  his  life. 

The  3  ist  and  32nd  Regiments  of  the  Hupeh  Army  were 
assigned  to  him  at  Wuchang.  September  20,  1911,  he  was  at 
Shashi  in  Hupeh  with  a  bodyguard  of  250  men  of  the  32nd 
Regiment — Manchus.  October  5  he  reached  Wanhsien, 
Szechuan,  and  October  9  he  requested  more  soldiers,  telegraph- 

65 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

ing  to  Wuchang  to  have  the  Szechuan  relief  force  (of  rein- 
forcements) march  speedily.  His  request  was  rejected  by 
the  Cabinet  in  Peking.  He  reached  Chungking  October  18, 
and  getting  no  reply  from  Wuchang  he  proceeded  with  his 
two  regiments  by  the  Cheng-tu  highway,  along  the  telegraph 
line,  where  he  might  expect  to  keep  in  communication  with 
Cheng-tu.  Tsen  Chun-hsuan  had  remained  at  Wuchang  where 
great  events  had  taken  place.  Wuchang  had  revolted  and 
Tuan  Fang  was  cut  off  from  telegraphic  communication  with 
Peking. 

Tuan  Fang's  soldiers  were  revolutionary  like  their  com- 
rades at  Wuchang.  They  were  in  contact  with  the  anti  for- 
eign-loan society — the  Tung  Chi  Huei — by  the  time  they  had 
reached  Chungking.  Here  they  began  to  desert  to  those 
whom  Tuan  Fang  had  called  "busybodies"  and  to  emulate 
those  whom  he  had  called  the  "real  rebels,"  "the  brigands," 
who  "used  the  present  opportunity  to  plunder,  kill,  burn  and 
destroy"  and  "spread  the  miseries  of  insurrection." 

As  he  proceeded  the  soldiers  learned  that  Wuchang  had 
fallen,  and  that  Hankow  had  been  burned,  and  his  force  was 
still  further  diminished.  He  stopped  at  Yung-chuan  on  the 
Cheng-tu  road  nearly  two  weeks  before  moving  on  to  Tze- 
chow,  his  last  stop.  Those  of  his  men  who  had  remained 
took  umbrage  at  having  been  kept  in  ignorance  of  the  revolt  at 
Wuchang,  their  home.  In  the  meantime  the  Viceroy  of 
Szechuan  accepted  terms  from  the  people's  movement  and 
Cheng-tu  fell. 

November  26,  the  soldiers  heard  of  this  and  Tuan  Fang 
was  now  thoroughly  intimidated.  He  was  surrounded.  He 
sought  to  make  terms  with  his  men  and  preliminary  to  this 
gave  them  a  feast,  killing  oxen,  sheep  and  pigs,  and  inviting 
some  of  the  local  gentry.  His  younger  brother  who  had  ac- 
companied him  explained  to  the  soldiers  that  their  mission 
was  ended,  over  half  of  China  had  revolted  against  the  Man- 
chu  rule  and  that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  go  any  further. 
Tuan  Fang  wished  to  return  and  pay  his  respects  to  the  Em- 
peror, and  if  they  would  give  him  a  safe  escort  to  Sianfu  in 
Shensi  he  would  pay  them  taels  40,000  (gold  value  $28,000). 

66 


WHEN    SZECHUAN    FELL 

The  men  of  the  two  regiments  quarreled  over  the  offer. 
Those  of  the  32nd  considered  themselves  as  particularly  the 
bodyguard  of  Tuan  Fang  and  thought  the  money  belonged  to 
them.  They  tried  to  get  Tuan  Fang  to  go  back  the  way  they 
had  come  as  that  would  take  them  home,  but  he  refused  be- 
cause the  cities  on  the  Yangtse  had  gone  over  to  the  Revo- 
lutionists. 

The  men  of  the  32nd  declined  to  give  up  their  claim  to 
Tuan  Fang's  money.  Those  of  the  3ist  demanded  that  the 
whole  amount  be  paid  down  and  threatened  to  shoot  the  com- 
mander of  the  men  of  the  32nd  if  he  did  not  force  Tuan  Fang 
to  pay  all  before  starting.  Tuan  Fang  had  to  tell  them  that 
he  had  but  taels  20,000  with  him  but  would  pay  the  balance  at 
Sianfu.  The  soldiers  refused  to  parley  and  dispersed.  That 
night  they  plotted  to  murder  Tuan  Fang. 

By  morning  all  his  officers  and  men  had  withdrawn  from 
about  him  except  four  of  his  old  bodyguard.  The  Manchus 
had  fled.  He  implored  a  foreign-educated  medical  student 
who  had  followed  him  from  Chungking,  and  who  brought 
back  the  story,  to  think  of  some  plan  whereby  he  might  escape 
from  the  region.  The  man  advised  him  to  go  quietly  on  a 
boat  down  the  river,  but  Tuan  Fang  thought  the  only  way  lay 
to  the  north,  and  asked  the  medical  student  to  exchange  chairs 
with  him  so  that  he  might  go  northward  in  disguise. 

The  medical  student  consented  and  November  27  at  2 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  Tuan  Fang  in  the  medical  student's 
chair,  with  his  brother,  accompanied  by  the  four  faithful  body- 
guards, started  off.  The  party  was  apprehended  by  the  sol- 
diers of  the  3  ist  Regiment  who  compelled  it  to  return.  They 
plundered  the  Envoy's  baggage.  He  himself  was  taken  out 
of  his  chair  and  compelled  to  walk  between  two  soldiers  to  a 
nearby  temple.  On  entering  the  temple  court,  one  of  his  ears 
was  struck  off  by  a  sword-blow  from  behind.  He  turned  and 
asked  his  assailants: 

"Do  you  want  to  kill  me?" 

"Kill,  kill,"  they  yelled  and  ordered  him  to  kneel.  He 
refused  to  do  so  and  his  two  captors  with  several  blows  de- 
capitated him  standing. 

6? 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

As  Tuan  Fang  was  being  led  to  the  temple  his  brother 
appealed  to  the  Commander  of  the  32nd  Regiment  to  save 
Tuan  Fang's  life.  The  Commander  pushed  the  brother  away 
and. left  him  to  be  decapitated  in  the  outer  court. 

The  head  of  Tuan  Fang  was  packed  in  a  tin,  covered  with 
lime  by  the  Hupeh  soldiers  who  then  started  back  to  Wu- 
chang with  it. 

In  December  Tuan  Fang's  personal  effects,  after  the  sol- 
diers who  looted  them  had  passed  on,  were  for  sale  in  Chung- 
king. They  included  his  foreign  decorations.  "Photographs 
of  his  head  with  his  two  executioners  standing  beside  it  could 
be  purchased  in  the  street."  The  remaining  soldiers  of  the 
3  ist  and  32nd  Hupeh  Regiments,  about  1,500  men  in  all, 
reached  Ichang,  December  28,  and  passed  into  their  own 
Province  where  they  soon  after  delivered  the  head  of  Tuan 
Fang  to  President  Li  Yuan-hung  at  Wuchang. 

After  making  terms  with  the  rebels  Chao  Er-feng  sent  a 
number  of  letters  to  Tibet  where  he  had  been  Warden  of  the 
Tibetan  Marches,  to  call  out  his  old  soldiers  of  the  Lhassa 
campaign  of  1908.  December  21  a  messenger  was  caught 
bearing  one  of  these  letters  according  to  which  fires  were  to 
be  started  at  the  north,  east  and  west  gates  of  Cheng-tu  and 
during  the  excitement  Chao  Er-feng  and  his  soldiers,  who 
were  virtual  prisoners  in  Cheng-tu  under  control  of  the  revo- 
lutionary government,  were  to  "kill"  their  way  out  of  the  city 
by  the  south  and  escape  to  Hsuang-liu-hsien  thirty  miles 
away.  "From  here,  should  the  place  be  untenable,  they  were 
to  retreat  to  Tibet  and  there  set  up  a  self-government."  The 
letter  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  military  government  of  Sze- 
chuan  which  at  daylight  December  22  sent  a  battalion  of  sol- 
diers to  surround  the  Viceroy's  yamen.  A  Captain  of  the  old 
style  provincial  troops  arrested  Chao  Er-feng.  One  of  the 
ex- Viceroy's  female  servants  fired  a  revolver  at  the  Captain, 
missing  him.  The  Captain  replied  with  deadly  effect. 

The  soldiers  took  "the  grim  old  warden  of  the  Marches" 
to  the  military  headquarters  where  they  tried  him  before  Lo 
Lun,  his  first  enemy,  and  the  soldiers.  When  asked  to  explain 
the  Tibetan  letters  he  denied  them.  The  soldiers  were  asked 

68 


WHEN    SZECHUAN    FELL 

for  their  verdict  and  they  unanimously  condemned  him  to 
death.  He  was  executed  and  his  head  carried  through  the 
streets  at  the  front  of  a  procession  led  by  the  Military  Gov- 
ernor Yuin.  From  an  upper  story  five  men  fired  at  the  Gov- 
ernor killing  his  horse  but  leaving  him  unharmed  to  proceed. 
Chao  Er-feng's  head  was  then  put  up  on  a  pole  with  this  in- 
scription :  "In  life  you  loved  to  look  down  on  men :  even  in 
death  you  have  your  desire." 

Nine  days  later  Chao  Er-feng's  Captain  of  the  yamen 
guard,  Tien  Cheng-kuei,  who  had  given  the  order  to  fire  on 
the  people  who  demanded  the  release  of  their  leaders  in  Sep- 
tember, met  a  similar  fate  in  Chungking  where  his  head  was 
carried  through  the  streets  on  a  pole.  "He  was  an  elderly 
man  over  sixty,"  writes  a  correspondent,  "his  hair  and  eye- 
brows being  shot  with  grey.  Foreigners  should  give  him  but 
scant  sympathy,  as  he  assisted  Yu  Hsien,  Governor  of  Shansi, 
in  the  massacre  of  missionaries  in  1900." 

The  missionary  observation  from  Cheng-tu  that  "the  Vice- 
roy seems  to  be  getting  matters  pretty  well  in  hand"  was  as 
good  a  guess  as  any  heard  elsewhere.  The  Throne  made  no 
better,  Szechuan  had  seceded  and  the  Chinese  Versailles — the 
Forbidden  City — beheld  the  Rebellion. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
WHEN   WUCHANG   SECEDED 

PEKING,  like  Versailles,  heard  the  cry  of  the  people  from 
afar,  but  did  not  know  that  it  was  the  oncoming  Re- 
bellion. 

News  of  fighting  in  Szechuan  died  down  because  the  tele- 
graphs were  cut.  Then  in  the  revolutionary  stillness  of  the 
afternoon  of  October  9,  1911,  a  bomb  exploded  prematurely 
in  a  Chinese  house  outside  a  German  butchery  in  the  Russian 
Concession  at  Hankow.  The  Russian  authorities  were  notified 
and  gave  orders  to  watch  the  place  and  arrest  suspicious  per- 
sons. After  a  while  a  man  appeared  and  came  out  to  ask 
what  had  happened.  He  was  arrested.  Later  another  who 
could  no  longer  withstand  the  gnaw  of  anxiety  came  out  and 
did  the  same.  He  also  was  arrested.  The  place  was  then 
searched.  A  revolutionary  centre  was  discovered,  the  hands 
of  the  Revolutionists  forced,  and  the  Republican  Rebellion 
began. 

There  were  two  men  in  the  house.  They  made  an  effort  to 
destroy  it  by  pouring  kerosene  oil  on  the  floor  and  setting  this 
on  fire,  but  failed.  The  place  contained  a  dynamite  plant, 
flags,  revolutionary  badges,  numbered  in  accordance  with 
the  revolutionary  organization,  a  map  showing  the  plan  of  at- 
tack on  Wuchang,  some  false  queues  and  the  Seal  of  the 
Republic. 

The  Concession  police,  through  the  Chinese  deputy  of  the 
Mixed  Court  in  the  foreign  Concessions,  handed  them  over 
to  the  Viceroy  Jui  Cheng  across  the  river  at  Wuchang.  There 
were  six  imprints  of  the  Seal  of  the  Republic  in  the  building 
that  had  been  the  workshop  of  the  Revolutionists.  Hand- 
ing these  imprints,  which  were  all  on  one  sheet,  to  a  foreign 
friend,  the  Mixed  Court  Deputy  said :  "Be  careful  what 

70 


WHEN    WUCHANG    SECEDED 

you  do  with  this,  put  it  in  a  safe  place  and  let  no  one  see  it." 
He  then  fled. 

The  evening  was  spent  by  the  Viceroy  Jui  Cheng  at  Wu- 
chang, in  consultation  with  the  police  and  his  Manchu  military 
advisor  and  head  of  the  Hupeh  Army,  General  Chang  Piao. 
After  the  closing  of  the  city  gates,  in  the  night,  he  brought  a 
sergeant  of  the  I3th  Regiment  suspected  of  being  a  Revo- 
lutionist to  his  yamen  and  raided  the  rendezvous  of  the  stu- 
dents and  reformers,  arresting  twenty-eight  conspirators,  sol- 
diers and  civilians.  There  was  an  attempt  to  assault  the  Vice- 
roy's yamen.  Three  of  the  arrested  conspirators  were  be- 
headed outside  the  yamen  at  daylight.  The  city  gates  under 
strong  guard  were  reopened  only  at  9 130  A.  M.  when  all  passes 
were  examined. 

An  examination  of  the  remaining  Revolutionist  captives 
took  place.  One  of  those  from  the  Hankow  Concession  was 
a  member  of  a  regiment  of  gendarmes.  He  was  asked  why 
he  had  joined  the  revolutionaries: 

"Because  the  Manchus  have  usurped  the  rights  of  the 
Han  people,  and  practiced  extortion  on  them." 

"What  do  you  expect  to  do  ?" 

"Assassinate  Tieh  Chung,  the  Advisor  of  the  Hupeh  Pro- 
vincial Division,  and  Viceroy  Jui  Cheng." 

Further  questions  he  refused  to  answer  saying  indignantly 
that  the  Manchu  Government  was  unfit  to  ask  questions  of 
him.    His  decapitation  followed  instantly,  followed  by  that  of 
his    companion — followed    by    four   other   decapitations. 
Decapitations  too  numerous  to  mention. 

Eight  soldiers  caught  in  the  act  of  stealing  a  field  gun  from 
artillery  park,  shot.  All  leads  up  to  the  memorable  night  of 
October  10.  The  Torch,  the  first  weapon  of  the  conspirator, 
Revolutionist  and  the  downtrodden  masses  when  they  can  bear 
no  more,  was  brought  forth.  Night  calls  for  flames.  7:45 
P.M.,  three  fires  start  in  the  ancient  provincial  Capital  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  Eastern  Camp.  Three  hundred  Hupeh  troops 
from  the  suburbs  have  broken  down  the  gates  and  have 
started  out  to  take  the  City.  They  have  gotten  into  touch 

71 


THE    FLOWERY.   REPUBLIC 

with  the  gunboat  Kien  Wei  in  the  river.  Rifle  firing.  The 
8th  Regiment  mutinies  and  fights  with  the  loyalist  remainder. 
It  wins  and  is  joined  by  the  I5th  Regiment.  They  attack  the 
magazines  and  win.  8  150,  fire  in  the  artillery  barracks.  The 
ammunition  has  exploded  and  starts  a  conflagration.  Great 
explosion  of  firecrackers  mixed  with  crack  of  cartridges. 

9  p.  M.,  soldiers  appear  on  all  the  Wuchang  ramparts  pass- 
ing backward  and  forward  against  a  background  of  flame, 
and  foreign  inquisitors  from  the  Hankow  Concessions  seeking 
the  Wuchang  shore  behold  the  scene  and  gaze,  n  P.M.,  there 
is  another  conflagration.  General  Chang  Piao  is  at  the  heaU 
of  his  Imperial  troops  resisting  the  conquest  of  the  city.  He 
cannot  protect  the  Viceroy's  yamen  and  the  Viceroy  has  fled 
with  his  family.  The  Viceroy's  yamen  is  burnt  together  with 
that  of  the  Provincial  Treasurer.  These  Imperialist  officials 
warn  the  foreigners  in  the  Hankow  concessions  of  revolt  in 
a  note  to  the  British  Consul-General  and  say  that  any  attack 
upon  them  must  be  met  by  themselves  as  the  Government  can 
give  no  help.  Viceroy  Jui  Cheng — he  has  received  Tuan 
Fang's  telegraphic  request  to  send  the  Szechuan  relief  force 
speedily — is  in  consultation  with  General  Li  Yuang-hung,  late 
Colonel  of  the  2ist  Regiment,  his  Chinese  Military  Advisor, 
but  does  not  know  he  is  a  General.  He  tells  him: 

"I  have  been  elected  Generalissimo,"  said  General  Li,  "in 
spite  of  my  own  protests.  I  advise  you  to  choose  either  of 
two  courses,  death  or  escape.  Should  you  elect  to  die  you 
had  better  be  quick,  if  you  wish  to  avoid  ignominious  treat- 
ment. Should  you  wish  to  live  I  will  personally  escort  you  to 
a  place  of  safety." 

At  nightfall  in  consideration  of  their  official  associations 
and  acquaintance,  the  Viceroy  Jui  Cheng  was  escorted  by 
General  Li  to  a  launch  at  the  water's  edge  where  with  the 
old  Yangtse  fleet  of  nine  war  junks,  he  crossed  to  the  Russian 
Concession,  Hankow. 

With  careful  arrangement,  General  Li  Yuan-hung's  regi- 
ment or  division  seems  to  have  been  distributed  with  refer- 
ence to  an  outbreak.  Even  the  nucleus  of  the  division  at  his 
own  headquarters  was  away  when  he  arrived  back  from  his 

72 


2.    Milita 

3  15?  Inf.  Brig 

4  S'-t  Engineer 
Jl>i  Chentf i 

6 
7 

S 


WUCHANG  AND  SURROUNDINGS 


WHEN    WUCHANG    SECEDED 

mission  of  saving  his  superior  Viceroy  Jui  Cheng  as  in  duty 
bound,  because  of  "jen  hsin" — human  feelings — "Confucian 
ethics,"  or  some  good  and  ancient  reason  of  military  ethics, 
by  escorting  him  to  the  river  and  seeing  him  well  on  his  way 
to  safety.  "When  the  revolutionary  army  had  driven  Jui 
Cheng  out  of  the  city,"  said  General  Li  Yuan-hung,"  they 
came  to  my  camp,  surrounded  it  and  made  a  search.  I  having 
dressed  myself  in  civilian  clothes,  hid  myself  in  a  rear  room, 
where  I  was  discovered  and  captured  and  reprimanded  for 
want  of  patriotism.  All  around  me  were  pistols  and  guns, 
my  head  and  body  would  certainly  have  parted  company  upon 
the  least  attempt  at  resistance  on  my  part ;  therefore  I  had  to 
consent  to  their  demands  [to  be  their  leader]  as  a  means  of 
policy." 

One  must  know  the  Chinese  to  imagine  the  revolutionary 
scene  the  night  of  October  10,  the  men  of  the  2ist  Regiment 
working  out  their  destiny  with  their  under-officers  and  setting 
about  their  work  of  uprising,  taking  discipline  in  their  own 
hands,  leaving  their  quarters  bent  on  their  work  oblivious  of 
their  leader  who  alike  oblivious  of  them  intently  set  about 
threading  the  maze  of  streets  to  get  to  the  Viceroy's  yamen 
or  his  place  of  hiding,  working  out  a  secret  exit  through 
tangled  passages,  and,  as  it  were,  making  his  way  toward  the 
river  with  his  exalted  charge.  Neither  Jui  Cheng  nor  Li 
Yuan-hung  broke  the  silence  as  to  what  were  their  words  of 
parting,  but  Li  Yuan-hung  has  left  upon  the  tablets  of  history, 
his  statement  of  their  last  interview.  I  can  see  him  as,  after 
warning  his  superior  to  flee,  he  watches  the  Manchus  in  the 
person  of  their  Viceroy  Jui  Cheng,  and  Old  China,  typified 
by  the  war  junk  fleet — its  Ship  of  State,  slip  away  into  Ob- 
livion. It  is  as  if  one  stood  on  the  shores  of  Palestine,  this 
October  night,  1911,  and  saw  proud  Tyre  and  Sidon  slip  into 
the  sea. 

As  he  turns  away  he  faces  the  New  China  and  the  Re- 
public. The  Old  has  put  off  on  the  tide.  Returning  to  his 
quarters  he  divests  himself  of  the  uniform  of  the  Empire,  of 
loyalty  to  the  Manchus,  and  puts  on  the  clothes  of  a  citizen. 
All  the  proprieties  have  been  observed.  Now  he  is  searched 

73 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

for — it  is  all  as  in  a  theatre.  Who  can  doubt  that  it  has 
been  so  staged?  He  is  neither  on  the  one  side  or  the  other. 
He  can  no  longer  be  accused  of  being  an  Imperialist.  He  is 
a  citizen — he  has  no  superiors,  no  inferiors.  He  can  give  no 
orders,  and  having  no  inferiors,  his  late  subordinates  "repri- 
mand" him  for  want  of  "patriotism."  He  is  a  helpless  and 
unworthy  son  of  Han,  surrounded  by  pistols  and  determina- 
tion. They  demand  that  he  put  on  the  uniform  of  their  lead- 
ership. He  pleads  his  unworthiness,  his  humble  origin,  his 
lack  of  all  talent,  his  meanness,  wretchedness,  inferiority 
wholesale  and  utter.  But  in  the  end  he  must  "consent  to  their 
demand  as  a  means  of  policy."  It  is  a  fine  game.  There  is 
no  Orient.  It  is  more  French  than  France. 

General  Li  Yuan-hung,  to  the  People,  before  escorting 
Jui  Cheng  to  safety : 

"Eighth  moon  4609^  year  of  the  Wuchang  Dynasty :  I, 
the  Hupeh  General  of  the  People's  Army,  am  to  overthrow 
the  Manchu  Government,  and  am  here  to  receive  the  rights 
of  the  Han  people.  Let  all  remain  orderly  and  obedient  to 
military  law. 

"Those  who  conceal  any  Government  officials  will  be  be- 
headed. 

"Those  who  inflict  injuries  on  foreigners  will  be  beheaded. 

"Those  who  treat  merchants  unfairly  will  be  beheaded. 

"Those  who  interfere  with  commerce  will  be  beheaded. 

"Those  who  indulge  in  wanton  slaughter,  burning  or  adul- 
tery, will  be  beheaded. 

"Those  who  fight  against  the  volunteers  will  be  beheaded. 

"Those  who  attempt  to  close  the  shops  will  be  beheaded. 

REWARDS 

"Those  who  supply  the  troops  with  foodstuffs  will  be 
rewarded. 

"Those  who  afford  protection  to  the  foreign  concessions 
will  be  highly  rewarded. 

"Those  who  guard  the  churches  will  be  highly  rewarded. 

74 


WHEN    WUCHANG    SECEDED 

"Those  who  lead  the  people  to  submission  are  to  be  highly 
rewarded. 

"Those  who  encourage  the  country  people  to  join  the 
revolution  will  be  rewarded. 

"Those  who  give  information  as  to  the  movements  of  the 
enemy  will  be  rewarded. 

"Those  who  maintain  the  prosperity  of  commerce  will  be 
rewarded." 

It  is  the  night  of  the  loth.  While  the  fighting  goes  on 
from  the  north-west  across  to  the  south-east  of  the  city,  the 
north  is  quiet  except  for  a  few  shots.  Three  soldiers  with 
white  bands  of  revolution  on  their  arms  appear  and  tell  for- 
eigners to  leave  the  city,  as  "the  revolutionists  are  after  the 
Viceroy."  "Kang  Yu-wei  is  on  the  river,"  they  said.  "There 
is  no  danger  for  foreigners  but  it  would  be  better  to  go. 
We  mean  you  no  harm  and  will  protect  you,  but  if  you  are 
wounded  by  a  stray  bullet  do  not  blame  us." 

"Shai  li" — union  is  strength,  comes  from  a  side  street. 
It  is  the  pass  word.  The  soldiers  move  on.  From  the  direc- 
tion which  they  have  taken  come  three  successive  rifle  shots. 
At  dawn  a  dead  man  lay  close  to  where  the  foreigners  had 
stood  in  the  night — with  three  other  dead  men  farther  away. 

It  is  the  morning  of  the  nth:  the  writers  of  republican 
proclamations  in  the  name  of  the  leader  of  the  rebellion  have 
done  their  work.  American  student  Chinese  and  other  stu- 
dent reformers  have  done  their  work  and  now  they  see  it 
stamped  with  the  new  Seal  and  spread  upon  the  walls  of 
Wuchang  selected  to  be  their  capital.  It  is  admirable  work. 
It  shines  in  the  daylight  and  starts  on  its  conquest  of  the 
languages  and  the  newspapers  and  books  of  the  world — as 
the  spark  struck  out  by  the  hoof  of  Paul  Revere's  horse 
started  its  conquest  of  the  hearts  of  down-trodden  nations. 

The  gates  are  reported  closed  and  men  are  lowering  peo- 
ple over  the  wall  by  a  rope  at  4000  cash  each  (20  cents).  The 
mob  in  seeking  descent  is  fired  on  by  the  guns  on  Serpent 
Hill.  The  Revolutionists  are  shooting  at  sight  all  soldiers  not 
wearing  the  white  brassard  on  the  arm.  Their  pass  words  are 

75 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

helpless,  and  with  their  ill-gotten  gains  join  the  Revolutionists 
or  decamp. 

General  Chang  Piao's  men  have  escaped  and  General  Li 
Yuan-hung  starts  after  them.  Viceroy  Jui  Cheng  with  his 
Provincial  Treasurer  and  his  Provincial  Judge  decide  upon 
escape  while  there  is  time  and  they  disappear  down  the 
Yangtse  on  their  gunboat.  October  12  at  2  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  General  Li  Yuan-hung's  Revolutionist  soldiers  hav- 
ing crossed  the  Yangtse,  are  in  possession  of  the  Hanyang 
arsenal  and  Hanyang  Iron  Works  together  with  140  three-inch 
guns,  5,000  rounds  of  gun  ammunition  with  powder  for  man- 
ufacturing 2,000,000  additional  rounds  and  32,000,000  rounds 
of  small  arms'  ammunition.  At  3  o'clock  the  loyal  Chinese 
cruiser  and  gunboats  are  firing  on  Hanyang.  Hankow  is  in 
disorder  with  the  people  looting. 

October  13.  General  Li  Yuan-hung  has  Wuchang  in  a 
state  of  order,  has  taken  Hankow  to  which  he  sends  money 
to  relieve  panic  and  is  in  possession  of  the  north  shore  of 
the  Yangtse  down  to  Seven  Mile  Creek  and  Kilometer  10 
where  Chang  Piao  faces  him.  Upon  the  outside  of  the  Tartar 
General's  yamen  at  Hankow  is  this  proclamation  by  General 
Li  Yuan-hung  posted  where  that  of  the  Imperialist  Manchu 
Commander  otherwise  might  be: 

"I  have  the  honor  of  the  military  government,  my  dear 
countrymen,  to  let  you  know  that  ours  is  a  righteous  cause. 
Don't  be  suspicious  of  our  army,  as  wherever  its  soldiers 
march  they  go  with  a  true  reason.  I  raise  up  the  National 
Army  against  the  Manchus,  not  for  the  good  or  merit  of 
myself  but  for  us  as  a  whole  to  rescue  you  out  from  the  hot 
fires  and  the  deep  waters ;  to  deliver  you  from  the  sufferings 
coming  from  the  Manchus  just  as  to  heal  your  ulcers  and 
sores. 

"Why  have  the  Manchus  put  you  under  such  suffering? 
Because  they  are  of  a  different  tribe  and  naturally  cast  you 
away  as  a  bit  of  straw. 

"Unto  this  day  you  must  have  known  that  the  Manchus 
are  not  the  sons  of  Han.  Although  you  have  been  so  loyal 

78 


WHEN    WUCHANG    SECEDED 

and  righteous  to  them,  yet  they  pay  nothing  for  your  service. 
Now  I  can  bear  it  no  longer,  therefore  we  are  suddenly  gath- 
ering ourselves  together  under  the  righteous  flag,  the  fore- 
most thing  we  want  to  do  is  to  demolish  what  is  harmful  or 
injurious  to  you  and  to  gladly  exert  whatever  effort  we  can 
only  for  your  welfare.  We  will  not  permit  those  who  are 
traitors  to  the  sons  of  Han  and  those  of  our  countrymen  who 
are  thieves  among  us  [referring  to  Sheng  and  other  Chinese 
agents  of  the  Throne  in  its  railway  policy]  to  breathe  any 
longer.  Formerly  they  ate  our  flesh  and  now  we  shall  eat 
them.  * 

"Those  who  are  in  favor  of  the  righteous  movement  are 
requested  to  enroll  their  names.  Come  and  consult  with  us 
about  the  object,  how  to  recover  our  kingdom,  China.  Now  is 
.the  time  for  us  to  re-establish  our  country  and  faithfully 
work  out  our  duty  as  the  countrymen  of  China  should  do. 

"We  wish  you,  my  dear  brothers,  not  to  misunderstand 
each  other.  You—  scholars,  farmers,  workers  and  merchants 
—should  try  with  one  accord  to  drive  out  the  savages.  Lastly 
I  wish  all  of  you  to  treat  each  other  as  justly  as  possible.  I 
wish  you  all,  my  dear  brothers,  to  listen  to  my  words. 

"By  order  Huang  Dynasty  4609,  eighth  moon,  iQth  day." 

To  this  proclamation  was  appended  the  following : 

",    .    "Oath  of  Enlistment  of  the  Revolutionary  Army. 

"I,  a  native  of   Hsien,  prefecture  of  ,  in  the 

Province  of  Hupeh,  through  the  introduction  of , ,  am  able 

to  understand  that  the  aim  of  the  People's  Army  Govern- 
ment is  to  drive  out  the  Manchus,  to  recover  the  losses  of 
the  Sons  of  Han,  to  establish  a  government  for  the  people 
and  to  foster  liberty,  and  equality,  am  now  self-willing  to 
be  listed  as  a  member  of  the  Central  Association  of  Hupeh. 
Hereafter  I  will  forever  obey  all  its  constitutions  and  by-laws. 
In  case  of  any  violation,  I  am  prepared  to  receive  due  punish- 
ment. I  respectfully  beg  the  Advisor-General  Sung  Chiu- 
chen  to  submit  this  confession  to  the  General  Secretary  Liu 
to  be  sanctioned.  And  through  the  special  officer  Hsiung 

79 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

Chen-sung,  I  hope  this  will  be  made  known  to  the  President 
of  the  People's  Army  Government.  Hsiung  Chung-shan, 
(sometimes  known  as  Sung  Wen). 

"The  name  of  the  Introducer  (Signed). 

"The  name  of  the  Admitted  Member  (Signed). 
"Huang  Dynasty  4609,  eighth  moon." 

Recruiting  for  the  "Republic  of  China"  began  on  the  I3th 
and  continued  until  in  a  short  while  the  "Republic"  claimed 
26,000  men  centred  at  Wuchang.  Order  had  not  yet  been 
restored  outside  the  walls  where  fires  on  the  I4th  continued 
into  the  night.  But  within,  the  Republic  had  a  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  Republican  Military  Organisation — Li  Yuan- 
hung,  a  military  Capitol  in  the  Hupeh  Provincial  Assembly 
building,  officers  of  state,  a  People's  Army  drilling  for  the 
Revolution,  a  Seal  of  the  "Republic,"  and  a  Republican  news- 
paper in  the  Ta  Han  Pao. 

General  Li  Yuan-hung  informed  the  foreign  Consuls  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  that  he  had  been  elected  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  by  representatives  of  the  military  govern- 
ments (Republican)  of  the  provinces  of  Anhuei,  Chekiang, 
Fukien,  Hunan,  Hupei,  Kiangsu,  Kuangsi,  Shantung,  Kiangsi, 
Kuangtung  and  Kueichou. 

The  wreck  of  the  Imperial  Government  on  the  Yangtse 
was  epitomised  in  the  ruins  of  Viceroy  Jui  Cheng's  yamen, 
outside  which,  the  first  Republican  martyrs  had  been  beheaded. 
About  half  its  vast  mass  of  buildings  remained,  but  the  front 
entrance  and  the  private  quarters  at  the  back  had  been 
burned.  Among  a  maze  of  passages  and  rooms,  "impossible" 
said  a  visitor,  "to  describe,"  there  was  a  universal  debris — 
books,  writing  materials,  documents,  plans,  utensils,  letters, 
maps,  broken  porcelain  and  trinkets,  together  with  the  in- 
signia and  the  paraphernalia  of  authority  littered  the  floors 
and  were  strewn  in  the  courts.  Pilferers  were  turning  over 
the  sorry  remains  gathering  metal,  discarded  clothing,  soiled 
pictures,  electric  wire,  books,  lumber,  even  pulling  down  doors 
and  taking  out  windows.  The  guest  rooms  had  not  been 
burned  and  contained  the  wreckage  of  an  elegant  suite  of 

80 


WHEN    WUCHANG    SECEDED 

European  furniture.  The  mantel  top  was  torn  off  and  broken 
on  the  floor.  Its  nest  of  drawers  had  been  wrenched  from  a 
fine  writing-desk. 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  street  from  the  Viceroy's 
yamen  covering  a  large  area  were  the  dwelling  houses  in 
which  had  lived  the  families  of  the  yamen  guard.  They  were 
hardly  more  than  an  ash  heap. 

The  appearance  of  the  morning  star,  Venus,  still  shining 
brilliantly  after  sunrise  was  heralded  by  many  Chinese  as 
portending  a  new  Dynasty,  and  a  new  China  taking  its  place 
among  nations. 

"We  are  like  your  Napoleon,"  said  a  revolutionary,  when 
foreigners  came  from  Hankow  to  look  after  their  missionary 
countrymen  and  visit  the  Republic.  "We  war  against  rulers 
not  against  nations." 

The  revolutionary  soldiers  were  dressed  in  black.  They 
had  thrown  away  all  ornaments  and  all  wore  simply  the  white 
rag  brassard  tied  on  the  arm.  In  one  place  sixteen  soldiers 
wearing  the  khaki  uniforms  were  shot,  and  it  was  death  to 
enter  the  city  in  that  guise.  Khaki  clothing,  the  uniform  of 
the  Imperialist  soldiers,  was  seen  lying  in  the  streets,  no  one 
daring  to  carry  it  off. 

Crowds  of  soldiers  trampled  under  foot  the  bright  orna- 
ments and  facings  and  other  paraphernalia  of  the  Imperialists. 
"They  resemble  in  their  demeanor  the  Swiss  soldiers,"  re- 
marked a  foreigner.  Recruits  marched  past,  their  ranks  filled 
with  coolie  laborers,  old  servants,  and  country  youths.  The 
parade-ground  opposite  the  improvised  Capitol  was  thronged 
with  horse  and  foot.  Within  a  military  court  was  sitting  for 
the  purpose  of  executing  remaining  Manchus  and  Imperialists 
or  otherwise  punishing  them  by  due  process  of  law. 

Having  once  secured  the  Commander-in-Chief's  pass  to 
the  city,  neither  soldier  nor  civilian  required  further  permis- 
sions. The  Capitol  was  filled  with  men  who  came  and  went 
without  hindrance.  Visitors  entered  unopposed.  Secretaries 
were  preparing  military  passes  and  proclamations  for  Han- 
yang and  Hankow  together  with  dispatches,  and  for  the  Revo- 
lutionist provinces.  Officers'  swords  clanked  in  the  passages 

81 


and  soldiers  were  hurriedly  eating.  Flags  were  displayed  at 
the  entrance  and  in  the  headquarters  building  with  the  inscrip- 
tion, "The  New  Han  [Dynasty  or  Power],  Exterminate  the 
Manchus  (Hsin  Han  Mieh  Wan)."  The  first  Republican 
headquarters'  emblem  was  that  of  exaltation  of  the  Hans. 

Behind  the  secretaries,  the  soldiers  and  officers  in  their 
uniforms,  was  Li  Yuan-hung,  wearing  his  plain  Chinese  silk 
gown. 

"I  couldn't  help  it,"  he  exclaimed  to  Roger  S.  Greene  the 
American  Consul  as  the  latter  entered  his  reception-room  after 
the  revolt. 


CHAPTER  IX 
WHEN   WUCHANG   SECEDED— Concluded 

CHINA  now  had  two  Capitals — Republican  and  Imperial- 
ist.    Wuchang  was  the  Republic — it  was  Paris.     Pe- 
king, the  Forbidden  City,  was  only  Versailles.     With 
the  smell  of  the  powder  of  Wuchang  in  its  nostrils  Peking 
was  a  different  thing  from  what  it  was  when  merely  crossed 
by  the  shadow  of  the  Szechuan  revolt  like  a  distant  cloud  on 
the  mountain  peak. 

Peking  under  the  last  Court  of  the  Manchus  has  an  ab- 
sorbing interest.  It  grips  the  imagination.  The  Prince  Re- 
gent had  appointed  Viceroy  Tsen  Chun-hsuan  and  the  Minis- 
ter Tuan  Fang  to  co-operate  with  Chao  Er-feng  to  pacify 
Szechuan  and  arrange  the  railway  difficulties  there.  Septem- 
ber 15,  1911,  he  conferred  upon  his  brother  Prince  Tsai  T'ao 
and  upon  Tsai  Fu,  the  son  of  the  head  of  the  Imperial  Clan, 
Prince  Ching,  the  ancient  and  famous  order  of  the  Yellow 
Jacket,  in  recognition  of  their  services  in  training  the  Im- 
perial Guard.  September  16,  he  reviewed  the  Imperial  Guard 
in  person  at  Peking  and  presented  it  with  his  own  colors,  an 
almost  unprecedented  glorification  in  China  of  the  military. 
Manoeuvres  on  a  scale  never  before  attempted  were  arranged 
to  take  place  at  the  ancient  outpost  inside  Shan-hai-kuan,  in 
the  region  of  K'ai-ping.  These  arrangements  then  collapsed 
in  the  face  of  the  revolutionary  situation.  Shih  Hsu,  one  of 
the  aged  and  decrepit  Grand  Councillors  whom  the  reform 
press  had  proposed  to  bury  as  an  actually  deceased  individual 
months  before,  tried  to  resign.  Prince  Ching,  who  had  many 
times  attempted  to  lay  down  his  responsibilities  as  head  of 
the  Imperial  Clan,  seeing  as  with  a  premonition  the  deluge, 
begged  leave  of  the  Throne  to  resign.  The  Throne's  Viceroy 
in  Szechuan  was  then  besieged  in  Cheng-tu,  his  capital,  and 
Prince  Ching  was  refused  by  Imperial  edict,  September  29,  in 
the  following  words : 

83 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

•"Though  over  seventy  years  of  age  he  (I  Kuang,  Prince 
of  Ching)  is  still  strong  and  healthy.  At  the  present  difficult 
time,  when  many  affairs  have  to  be  managed  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  constitutional  regime  is  in  progress  it  is  most 
essential  to  rely  on  the  assistance  of  an  aged,  experienced, 
and  venerable  person  in  carrying  out  measures  of  reform. 
As  the  said  Prince  has  hitherto  been  renowned  for  his  honesty 
and  loyalty  he  can  never  lay  aside  the  existing  condition  of 
affairs.  We  hereby  command  that  his  request  to  be  relieved 
of  his  duties  as  Cabinet  Minister  and  Officer  in  Charge  of 
the  Affairs  of  the  Wai-wu-pu  (Foreign  Office)  need  not  be 
considered." 

The  Throne  feels  the  first  earth-tremors  and  its  own  dis- 
solution. Tuan  Fang  has  started,  but  is  still  far  from  Cheng- 
tu;  Tsen  Chun-hsuan  has  not  yet  started.  The  Szechuan 
revolt  is  unmanageable,  and  the  Throne  seems  to  be  getting 
ready  for  the  tidal  wave,  and  to  safely  ride  it.  Its  old  ma- 
chinery of  Empire — the  vastest  in  the  world  in  bulk — oiled 
by  its  misfortunes,  begins  to  work  with  a  marvelous  action. 
It  fears  to  permit  its  lieutenants  in  Peking  to  desert  the  col- 
ours. The  aged  and  decrepit  ministers  who  have  held  on  to 
their  posts  know  they  are  not  equal  to  the  times,  but  the 
Prince  Regent  cannot  persuade  himself  to  trade  horses  in 
mid-stream.  Prince  Ching's  further  supplications  are  there- 
fore denied. 

A  Chinese  adage  always  remembered  by  Chinese  rulers  is 
"The  water  that  bears  up  the  ship  can  also  capsize  it."  Oc- 
tober 4,  1911,  as  if  to  turn  the  clash  of  arms  to  its  own 
account  and  to  pour  oil  on  the  troubled  waters  it  issues  an 
edict  for  the  adoption  of  patriotic  airs.  Its  sacred  words  are : 

"The  art  of  music  has  close  relation  with  the  administra- 
tion of  Government.  Owing  to  the  lack  of  a  special  poem 
as  our  national  anthem  and  of  a  standard  form  of  national 
music,  we  some  time  ago  ordered  the  Board  of  Ceremonies 
and  the  various  yamens  to  satisfactorily  and  judiciously  com- 
pile a  book  on  this  subject.  Now  the  Board  of  Ceremonies 

84 


WHEN    WUCHANG    SECEDED 

and  the  said  other  yamens  have  submitted  jointly  their  com- 
position of  a  special  poem  with  standard  forms  of  music  en- 
closed for  our  perusal.  We  find  the  wording  sonorous  and 
the  strains  tolerably  martial  and  beautiful,  and  its  rhyming 
and  musical  part  very  well  phrased  and  melodious.  We  here- 
by command  that  the  book  be  universally  adopted  as  the  stand- 
ard of  national  music." 

The  national  anthem  was  as  follows : 

"May  the  golden  bowl  be  preserved ! 
May   heaven  shelter   us ! 
Let  the  people  and  all  living  things 

rejoice  as  ducks    among 

the  pond  lilies ! 
We   are   happy  to    wear   the 

same  clothing. 
In   this   time  of  the  Ching 

Dynasty  we  are   fortunate 

to  see  real  splendor  and 

glory : 

May  the  heavens  protect  the  Im- 
perial   Family ! 
Very  high  are  the  heavens, 
Carelessly  roll   the  waves  of 

the  sea." 

The  reformers  had  come  to  hold  the  Throne's  edicts  in 
contempt.  Each  additional  edict  emphasised  the  hollow  mock- 
ery of  the  Throne  itself. 

October  10,  before  they  had  received  Viceroy  Jui  Cheng's 
report  of  his  coup  of  the  revolutionaries  and  the  nipping  of 
their  plot  in  the  bud  on  the  night  of  the  Qth,  the  Throne  issued 
another  edict  bearing  on  the  railway  situation  that  had  brought 
on  the  rebellion.  It  explains  the  whole  position  of  the  Gov- 
ernment in  its  nearly  three  years'  struggle  with  the  people  on 
this  question.  Tuan  Fang  and  others  had  reported  the  nation- 
alisation of  the  portions  within  the  Hupeh  province  adjoining 
Szechuan  on  the  East  of  the  Canton-Hankow  Railway  and 
the  cancellation  of  the  private  companies  of  the  same,  in 

85 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

accordance  with  an  Imperial  Order,  and  submitting  their  de- 
cision as  to  the  plan  of  taking  over  the  railway  capital.  It 
runs  as  follows : 

"Owing  to  the  nationalisation  of  the  railways,  arrived  at 
some  time  ago,  orders  have  been  issued  to  the  Director-Gen- 
eral of  the  Canton-Hankow  and  the  Szechuan-Hankow  rail- 
ways to  act  in  conjunction  with  the  viceroys  and  governor 
of  the  said  provinces  as  to  the  disposal  of  the  funds  that  have 
been  collected  in  different  ways  [by  the  provincials  for  the 
building  of  the  railways  themselves  as  well  as  by  the  National 
Government],  in  accordance  with  the  decree  June  17,  1911. 

"Now,  according  to  their  memorial,  the  capital  of  the  Hu- 
peh  railway  may  be  divided  into  four  classes.  Private  capital 
of  both  the  Canton-Hankow  and  the  Szechuan-Hankow  rail- 
ways, has  all  been  fully  paid.  They  shall,  in  obedience  to 
the  decree,  be  covered  by  the  issue  of  Government  Railway 
Bonds  without  distinction,  or  if  shareholders  are  unwilling  to 
take  up  the  bonds,  they  shall  be  redeemed  by  cash.  With 
regard  to  the  capital  derived  from  lottery  tickets  of  the  Szec- 
huan-Hankow railway,  as  these  are  different  in  nature  from 
common  lottery  tickets,  as  they  have  been  long  superseded 
by  share  certificates  issued  to  their  holders,  and  as  interest 
has  been  paid  on  them  at  regular  intervals,  the  memorialists 
suggest  that  they  be  treated  in  a  way  similar  to  the  other 
shares,  by  giving  their  holders  bonds  bearing  interest,  and 
participation  in  dividends. 

"Coming  to  the  private  capital  raised  by  private  persons, 
.  this  item  is  mostly  composed  of  small  sums,  and  the  share- 
holders live  in  scattered  parts,  so  that  it  is  impossible  to  learn 
the  opinion  of  all  of  them.  They  suggest  that  the  gentry  who 
are  members  of  the  Railway  Association  of  the  said  province 
be  entrusted  with  the  task  of  disposing  of  this  class  of  capital 
by  refunding  it  all.  Should  there  be  persons  who  wish  to 
subscribe,  they  can  pay  money  for  the  bonds,  separately,  so  as 
to  arrive  at  a  clear  settlement. 

"Besides  the  above,  there  is  another  class  representing 
famine  and  rice-sale  contributions.  They  suggest  that  this 

86 


WHEN    WUCHANG    SECEDED 

may  be  regarded  as  the  public  property  of  the  localities  con- 
cerned as  was  done  in  the  case  of  Hunan  Province." 

The  edict  goes  on  to  say  that  having  reached  an  "unani- 
mous conclusion  between  the  officials  and  gentry"  the  taking 
over  of  the  railways  of  Hupeh  by  the  National  Government 
was  completed  September  29,  1911. 

Viceroy  Jui  Cheng  was  without  doubt  in  office  at  Wuchang 
because  of  his  support  of  the  policy  of  nationalising  the  rail- 
ways. In  1908  in  a  memorial  to  the  Throne  he  had  recom- 
mended the  borrowing  of  immense  sums  of  money  abroad  and 
the  building  of  trunk  line  railways  in  all  directions  as  the  only 
means  of  saving  the  Empire,  that  is,  the  only  means  of  self- 
delivery  from  its  foreign  enemies,  the  only  means  of  saving  it 
for  the  Manchu  Dynasty,  the  only  means  of  saving  the  Manchu 
Dynasty.  The  first  step  in  nationalisation  was  completed, 
and  the  satisfaction  of  the  Throne  regarding  the  policy  which 
had  been  so  strongly  championed  by  Jui  Cheng  was  expressed 
in  the  closing  paragraph  of  the  edict : 

"The  said  high  officials  have  managed  the  transfer  of 
railway  matters  in  a  manner  tolerably  satisfactory  and  just. 
Jui  Cheng,  Viceroy  of  Hukuang,  is  clear-sighted  and  rapid  in 
the  execution  of  duty.  He  has  exerted  himself  to  a  still 
greater  extent,  in  devising  means  carefully  and  laboriously  for 
the  disposal  of  railway  affairs,  disappointing  not  Our  Trust. 
The  scholars  and  gentry  of  the  said  province  really  under- 
stand their  duty  very  well,  in  defining  the  benevolent  idea  of 
the  Throne  by  being  the  foremost  in  obeying  Our  Plan.  Let 
an  Imperial  message  of  eulogy  be  transmitted  to  them.  The 
said  high  officials  are  hereby  commanded  to  execute  speedily, 
in  conjunction  with  the  Ministry  of  Finance  and  Ministry  of 
Posts  and  Communications,  the  different  plans  as  suggested, 
for  the  settlement  of  the  different  questions,  and  for  an  early 
construction  of  the  lines,  to  emphasise  the  importance  of  the 
communication." 

The  Regent  as  custodian  of  the  Imperial  Seal,  had  hardly 
sealed  this  edict  and  the  Cabinet  presidents  and  vice-presidents 

87 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

had  hardly  signed  it  before  Jui  Cheng's  telegraphic  report 
of  the  revolutionary  plot  at  Wuchang  arrived.  Herewith  Jui 
Cheng  on  China's  "Battle  of  Lexington" : 

"Information  was  received  of  the  secret  assembly  of  the 
revolutionaries  in  Wuchang,  where  they  decided  to  effect  a 
rising  during  the  night  of  October  10.  Your  memorialist  was 
just  giving  orders  for  precaution  and  for  their  capture  when 
a  telegram  from  Ch'i  Yao-san  reported  the  capture  of  one 
important  rebel  named  Liu  Yao-chao  at  Hankow,  with  seizure 
of  a  number  of  sham  seals,  sham  proclamations,  sham  docu- 
ments, etc.  Thereupon  your  memorialist  and  General  Chang 
Piao  and  others  directed  the  officers  and  soldiers  to  arrest  in 
succession  thirty-two  rebels,  either  leaders  or  members  of  the 
revolutionary  party,  within  or  without  the  capital  city,  as  well 
as  to  discover  and  seize  a  large  quantity  of  arms,  ammunition 
and  bombs.  Of  the  captives,  Liu  Ju-k'uei  opened  fire  in  re- 
sisting capture,  Yang  Wen-shen  secreted  arms  and  weapons, 
and  Pun  T'su-fan  raved  most  madly  and  violently  in  his 
speech.  These  three  prisoners  were  executed  after  a  trial." 

The  Viceroy  Jui  Cheng  concludes  with  an  account  of  the 
action  of  his  officers  participating  in  the  capture  and  asks  for 
instructions. 

The  Throne  and  Cabinet  took  up  their  pens  upon  which 
the  ink  of  praise  for  Viceroy  Jui  Cheng  was  still  wet  and  in 
another  edict  in  the  name  of  the  Emperor  said : 

"These  revolutionaries  aimed  at  a  great  rising  by  beginning 
their  rebellious  activity  in  Hupeh :  they  had  no  regard  for 
law.  The  said  Viceroy  crushed  the  first  budding  of  the  dan- 
ger and  suppressed  the  rebellion  in  a  moment.  His  action  has 
been  expeditiously  executed.  The  civilian  and  military  officials 
are  also  commendable  for  their  bravery.  .  .  .  The  remainder 
of  the  captives  are  hereby  ordered  to  be  severely  tried  and 
punished  with  the  utmost  rigour  of  the  law.  At  the  same 
time,  the  Viceroy  shall  direct  the  territorial  officials,  both  civil 
and  military,  to  search  for  and  arrest  strictly  and  secretly  all 
the  rebels  that  are  fleeing;  whilst  proclamations  are  to  be 

88 


WHEN    WUCHANG    SECEDED 

issued,  permitting"  those  who  have  been  coerced  into  joining 
the  rebels  to  repent  and  turn  over  a  new  leaf.  As  to  the  con- 
stabulary force  and  the  civil  and  military  officials,  who  have 
failed  in  foresight,  they  are  hereby  all  granted  exemption  from 
the  consideration  of  a  penalty,  in  view  of  their  having-  rendered 
assistance  in  effecting  the  capture." 

Now  they  dipped  their  pens  in  gall.     Hear  the  result : 

"Peking,  October  12.  Jui  Cheng  reports  by  telegraph  that 
he  was  disposing  by  trial  of  the  rebels  captured  during  the 
night  of  the  Qth,  when  their  comrades  conspired  with  the  en- 
gineer and  transport  regiments  and  suddenly  burst  out  in  sup- 
port of  each  other  on  the  night  of  the  loth.  The  engineer 
regiments  ferociously  assaulted  the  arsenal  of  Ch'u-wan-ti, 
while  the  transport  regiments  set  fire  to  their  own  camps  and 
forced  an  entrance  by  destroying  the  gate  of  the  city.  Jui 
Cheng,  in  company  with  Chang  Piao,  Tieh  Chung  and  Wang 
Li-k'ang,  directed  the  army  and  police  and  conducted  in  per- 
son the  gendarme  corps  to  assist  this  attack.  But  owing  to 
the  rebel  assault  being  made  simultaneously  from  several 
points  and  their  number  being  very  large,  Jui  Cheng  had  to 
retreat  on  broad  the  cruiser  Ch'u-yu,  which  moved  to  Han- 
kow. Having  already  telegraphed  for  reinforcements  by  the 
transfer  of  the  defence  corps  from  Hunan  and  Honan  to 
Hupeh,  he  requests  that  high  officials  may  be  sent  to  Hupeh 
with  as  many  units  of  efficient  force  as  is  possible  to  punish 
and  suppress  the  rebellion,  etc.  Upon  perusal  of  this  memorial 
We  are  very  much  surprised.  The  conspiracy  between  soldiers 
and  rebels  must  have  been  planned  long  ago ;  yet  Jui  Cheng 
had  neither  taken  any  precautions  nor  made  any  preparations 
in  advance  to  meet  the  sudden  outburst  of  the  evil  plot,  cul- 
minating in  the  loss  of  the  capital  city.  He  is  really  unpar- 
donable for  his  ungrateful  and  negligent  behaviour.  Jui 
Cheng,  Viceroy  of  Hukuang,  is  hereby  cashiered  instantly,  but 
permitted  to  expiate  his  crime  by  some  signal  service.  He 
is  therefore  to  continue  Acting  Viceroy  of  Hukuang,  in  order 
to  have  a  chance  of  future  achievements.  The  said  Viceroy  is 

89 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

hereby  held  responsible  for  the  recovery  of  the  capital  city. 
Should  he  fail  to  accomplish  anything,  the  said  Acting  Viceroy 
shall  certainly  be  punished  severely." 

The  Throne  then  took  up  General  Chang  Piao: 

"Chang  Piao  has  been  training  the  Hupeh  army  now  for 
a  number  of  years;  that  such  a  conspiracy  between  soldiers' 
and  rebels,  resulting  in  the  loss  of  the  capital  city  could  have 
happened,  clearly  proves  that  he  has  been  training  it  without 
methods,  moreover  he  had  neither  taken  precautionary  meas- 
ures in  advance,  nor  had  he  the  discipline  to  control  them  at 
the  time  of  emergency,  which  shows  that  he  has  not  obtained 
the  sympathy  of  his  army.  He  even  dared  to  escape  from  his 
camp  and  abandon  his  trust.  He  has  really  committed  a  very 
grave  offense  and  is  unpardonable.  Chang  Piao,  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  new  Army  and  Provincial  Commander  is 
hereby  cashiered  instantly,  and  Jui  Cheng  is  commanded  to 
order  him  to  speedily  punish  the  rebels  very  severely  and  to 
recover  the  capital  city." 

Alas !  the  disappearing  Viceroy  never  received  these  edicts. 
He  was  en  route  to  Shanghai.  Seeking  first  a  refuge  at  Nan- 
king, he  disappeared  in  the  foreign  settlements  at  Shanghai 
from  where  he  escaped  to  Japan.  He  was  honoured  by  a  car- 
toon in  the  reform  press  in  which  he  was  shown  begging  pro- 
tection of  the  British  Consul-General  at  Shanghai.  He  was 
a  man  of  slight  stature,  alert,  and  possessing  considerable  abil- 
ity but  showed  no  special  qualities.  Surrounded  by  enemies 
many  of  whom  were  assassins  his  course  in  taking  flight  was 
highly  practical.  He  was  a  victim  of  the  new  times  in  China. 
Tsen  Chun-hsuan  appointed  tp  pacify  Szechuan  had  ar- 
rived at  Wuchang  to  await  his  old  guard  of  Yunnan  troops 
which  he  had  ordered  up  from  Canton.  He  asked  the  Throne 
for  funds.  The  Ministry  of  Finance  granted  him  taels  20,000 
to  defray  the  travelling  costs  of  his  journey,  but  it  rejected 
his  proposal  to  pay  his  old  Yunnan  soldiers  out  of  funds  to 
be  granted  by  the  Ministry  whose  resources  are  unable  to 

90 


WHEN    WUCHANG    SECEDED 

meet  the  costs.  The  Cabinet  at  the  instigation  of  Sheng 
Hsuen-huai  instructed  him  to  travel  double  stages  daily,  and 
to  think  out  his  plans  in  advance  for  the  pacification  or  pun- 
ishment of  the  people,  when  he  arrived.  Tsen  Chun-hsuan 
brought  from  his  experiences  as  Viceroy  at  turbulent  Canton 
an  intimate  knowledge  of  revolt  and  the  new  reform  move- 
ment and  he  at  once  discovered  himself  to  be  again  upon  hos- 
tile ground. 

At  Wuchang  the  officials  had  lost  confidence  in  the  troops 
and  for  a  week  preceding  the  outbreak,  officers  were  required 
to  report  at  three  regular  intervals  during  the  night  hours 
to  show  they  were  not  preparing  for  a  mutiny.  The  men 
were  forbidden  to  see  outsiders  and  their  letters  were  cen- 
sored. Following  the  outbreak  in  Szechuan,  300  men  had 
deserted  and  although  a  few  were  captured  they  were  not 
punished  for  fear  of  inflaming  the  rest  of  the  troops.  In  the 
face  of  this  situation,  with  the  Szechuan  revolt  growing,  Tsen 
Chun-hsuan  brought  forth  the  universal  Mandarin  excuse — 
illness.  As  he  was  an  old  official,  his  disease,  whatever  it 
was,  had  become  standardised  and  chronic  in  the  Dynastic 
Archives.  He  had  used  it  many  times  before  in  the  buf- 
fetings  which  he  and  the  Empire  had  received  in  all  the  evil 
days  of  the  past  fifty  years.  It  was  a  convenient  resource 
when  the  revolt  occurred,  October  10.  He  repeated  his  prayer 
to  the  Throne  to  be  permitted  to  resign,  but  the  Throne  only 
granted  him  respite  to  regain  his  health  at  Wuchang  before 
proceeding.  He  straightway  sent  away  his  staff  and  directed 
his  private  employees  to  return  to  Shanghai.  His  where- 
abouts from  that  moment  were  unknown  until  he  telegraphed 
to  the  Cabinet  at  Peking  to  the  effect  that  the  rising  in  Hupeh 
was  so  sudden  that,  being  a  man  to  whom  the  revolutionaries 
had  paid  special  attention,  he  had  been  obliged  to  leave  the 
city  alone.  Now  he  was  afflicted  with  his  old  complaint  and 
was  being  doctored  at  Shanghai.  The  decree  appointing  him 
Viceroy  of  Szechuan  filled  him  with  perturbation  and  alarm 
to  the  highest  degree.  He  said  that  he  was  so  aged  and  de- 
crepit, that  he  could  not  possibly  be  equal  to  such  responsible 
duties  and  begged  the  rescinding  of  the  order  and  the  ap- 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

pointment  of  a  competent  official  for  the  welfare  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. 

All  those  agents  in  whom  it  had  placed  its  reliance  were 
aged,  decrepit,  or  by  other  disqualifications  incompetent.  The 
Throne's  props  had  fallen  and  it  was  throwing  its  searchlight 
about  its  Empire,  looking  for  a  saviour. 


CHAPTER  X 
OCTOBER  IN   PEKING 

AS  I  went  about  Peking  the  events  of  October  were  fresh 
in  the  mind.  It  was  a  month  of  days  like  France's 
October  Fifth  in  the  year  1789,  "from  which  is  com- 
monly dated  the  French  Revolution,"  "a  phenomenon  hence- 
forth absorbing  all  others  for  mankind." 

It  was  a  month  overburdened  with  events,  under  pressure 
of  which  the  machinery  of  the  Throne  collapsed.  There  was 
a  rain  of  edicts,  not  ordinary  edicts  of  which  the  Throne  in 
ordinary  times  furnishes  perhaps  a  dozen  a  month,  but  history- 
making  edicts  such  as  the  Throne  issues  only  in  times  of  great 
national  danger.  There  were  about  two  a  day.  Their  issue 
commenced  in  fact  in  September,  and  gained  such  momentum 
as  to  continue  on  into  November. 

It  is  in  October  that  the  Throne  by  appointments  and 
reappointments  is  still  attempting  to  swing  great  Szechuan 
back  into  line.  It  is  "much  astounded"  at  events.  Ordering 
cities  re-captured  "at  a  prescribed  time  without  delay,"  exalt- 
ing some  officials  and  degrading  others  while  aiming  at  recov- 
ering the  confidence  of  the  people  and  inciting  rivalry  among 
its  officials. 

October  n,  when  General  Li  Yuan-hung  begins  to  mobil- 
ise at  Hankow,  to  attack  the  Imperial  forces  under  his  late 
colleague  General  Chang  Piao,  there  is  a  special  Cabinet 
meeting  at  Peking  to  consider  the  situation  there  and  the 
Throne  revises  the  military  distribution  in  the  Empire.  It 
orders  two  divisions  to  concentrate  before  Hankow  to  which 
it  joins  the  fleet  under  Admiral  Sah  Chen-ping  to  assist  in 
putting  down  the  rebellion.  It  clings  to  Tsen  Chun-hsuan 
and  will  not  allow  him  to  resign,  but  places  him  in  command 
of  all  the  military  forces  of  Szechuan  together  with  the  rein- 

93 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

forcements  from  Kweichou  on  the  South  and  those  marching 
in  the  direction  of  Szechuan  from  the  North. 

For  twenty  years  historians  have  talked  of  the  decline  of 
the  Manchu.  Dynasty.  The  remark  oftenest  made  of  the 
Manchus  during  that  time  has  been  that  the  Dynasty  had  no 
visible  leader.  In  its  frantic  efforts  at  collecting  munitions, 
assembling  armies  and  ships,  at  recalling  officials,  at  dispatch- 
ing officers  and  trying  to  recover  cities  and  provinces,  the 
Throne  looked  for  a  leader  among  the  Chinese.  It  knew 
where  to  turn  its  searchlight,  but  for  complicated  reasons  of 
amour  propre,  Court  intrigue,  and  so  on,  almost  too  intricate 
to  follow,  it  left  until  the  eleventh  hour  the  humiliating  task 
of  appealing  to  a  man  whom  it  had  discarded.  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai  the  late  Empress  Grand  Dowager's  reliance  in  military 
and  foreign  affairs  was  this  man.  His  name  was  in  every- 
one's mouth.  Vengefully  and  perfidiously  cast  off  in  Janu- 
ary, 1909,  the  Throne,  October  14,  1911,  summoned  him  from 
his  country  place  in  Honan  Province  to  save  the  Empire.  It 
appointed  him  Viceroy  of  Hukuang  to  succeed  Jui  Cheng. 

On  the  occasion  of  his  dismissal  the  edict  ordered  him 
to  vacate  all  his  offices  and  return  to  his  home  on  account  of 
"rheumatism  of  the  leg,"  adding  ominously  "thus  our  clem- 
ency toward  him  is  manifested."  Up  to  that  time  any  diseases 
which  Yuan  might  have  had,  had  not  got  into  the  archives. 
But  his  fellow  Grand  Councillors  who  conferred  this  ailment 
upon  him  by  signing  the  decree  placed  before  them  by  the 
Prince  Regent  were  wise,  not  so  much  in  the  symptoms  of 
the  Mandarin  as  in  diagnosing  the  symptoms  of  the  Court. 
Yuan  now  had  an  official  disease.  He  disappeared  into  official 
eclipse  which  in  China  is  total. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  officially  entombed  until  thus  now 
resurrected.  After  nearly  three  years,  hearing  the  Gabriel 
blast  of  an  edict  from  Peking,  he  looks  about  him.  It  is  a 
new  world.  The  things  he  feared  and  prophesied  have  come 
to  pass.  He  knows  that  he  is  being  appealed  to  to  bear  the 
burdens  of  the  Government's  mistakes,  but  he  cannot  refuse 
in  such  a  time  for  patriotic  reasons  and  except  at  the  risk  of 
his  life.  He  is  a  patriot  and  he  gratefully  accepts  the  honour 

94 


OCTOBER    IN    PEKING 

imposed  upon  him,  at  the  same  time,  having  done  so,  he  pens 
one  of  those  exquisite  Chinese  pages  of  political  irony  that 
testify  to  the  profound  depths  of  Chinese  humour,  and,  en- 
grossed upon  the  archives,  are  the  amazement  of  foreigners. 
He  says  he  has  not  yet  recovered  from  "rheumatism  of  the-, 
leg,"  and  prays  to  be  given  a  little  while  longer  in  which  to 
doctor  himself. 

When  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  dismissed  and  the  Emperor 
Kuang  Hsu  was  on  his  bier  at  which  his  Empress,  now  the 
Lung  Yu,  Empress  Dowager,  daily  came  to  wail,  she  and 
the  late  Emperor's  brother  Chun,  now  the  Prince  Regent, 
had  not  yet  parted  political  company  and  they  carried  out 
with  one  accord  what  was  known  to  be  the  wish  of  the 
late  Emperor.  This  was  the  punishment  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
for  his  failure  to  support  the  reform  programme  of  the  Kang 
Yu-wei  party  in  1898.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  out  of  the  way,  the 
waters  of  factional  strife  flowed  under  the  bridge.  The  Lung 
Yu  Empress  Dowager  and  the  Prince  Regent  became  the 
heads  of  opposing  Court  parties,  the  so-called  Yehonala  Clan 
— that  to  which  the  late  Empress  Grand  Dowager  belonged 
and  known  as  the  Red  Girdle  party,  supporting  the  Lung  Yu 
Empress  Dowager,  and  the  so-called  Aisin  Gioros,  or  Yellow 
Girdle  party,  supporting  the  Prince  Regent. 

The  division  between  these  two  parties  was  marked  by 
the  dividing  line  of  power  between  the  Lung  Yu  Empress 
Dowager  and  the  Emperor.  The  late  Empress  Grand  Dow- 
ager had  conferred  her  mantle  upon  her  successor,  the  emblem 
of  power  of  the  Yehonala  Clan.  The  Prince  Regent's  power 
aside  from  that  of  his  office  lay  in  his  being  the  father  of  the 
Emperor  and  through  the  mother  of  the  Emperor,  Princess 
Chun,  who  aspired  to  be  a  rival  to  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dow- 
ager. 

By  October,  1911,  the  factional  fights  have  ceased.  The 
whole  Imperial  Clan  is  awed.  It  is  a  crisis  not  only  for  the 
reign  but  one  holding  the  fate  of  the  Dynasty.  Fateful  is 
October  in  the  household  of  the  Emperor.  Pu  Yi,  five  and 
one-half  years  old,  in  his  third  dynastic  year  is  splashing 
through  the  Autumn  mud  puddles  in  the  courts  of  the  For- 

95 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

bidden  City,  ruining  his  new  velvet  boots  and  flabbergasting 
eunuch  Chang  and  his  fellows  who  must  plunge  through  un- 
hesitatingly with  the  yellow  umbrella. 

The  Imperial  school-room  in  the  Su-ch'ing  Palace  awaits 
his  Majesty's  arrival  when  he  has  reached  his  sixth  year, 
when  the  Imperial  learning  will  commence.  In  his  play-room 
are  toys  from  most  of  the  crowned  heads  of  Europe.  The 
Czar  of  all  the  Russias  has  sent  him  gifts  of  value  fabulous 
in  Toyland.  The  Kaiser  has  sent  him  a  toy  aeroplane,  a  gilded 
metal  chair,  a  hook  and  ladder  wagon.  Everything  has  in  it 
a  musical  box.  A  mechanical  dog  emits  bow-wows,  where- 
upon from  his  interior  come  tunes.  When  the  little  Emperor 
sits  down  in  his  chair,  music  begins  to  play.  The  attendants 
are  more  pleased  even  than  the  little  Emperor.  The  latter 
has  inherited  similar  things  from  the  previous  Emperor — 
such  playthings  as  were  not  looted  by  the  foreign  troops  in 
1900. 

While  Pu  Yi  is  playing  with  his  toys  and  waiting  for  his 
Imperial  education  to  begin  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager, 
who  is  his  adopted  mother,  is  establishing  the  rule  of  what  is 
known  as  the  "Lowered  Curtain"  by  which  women  of  the 
Imperial  family  wield -the  sceptre  for  the  male  occupant  of 
the  Throne  who  alone  has  the  right  to  govern.  Her  star, 
that  of  the  Yehonalas,  is  rising.  The  administration  of  the 
Regent  has  failed  and  his  princes  and  his  partisans  shrink  into 
the  background.  The  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  is  coming 
into  the  fierce  light  that  now  beats  upon  the  Manchu  Throne. 

Two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  Chinese  and  Manchus, 
more  than  one-third  its  population,  flee  from  Peking.  They 
go  by  foot,  by  animal  and  by  railway.  Extra  trains  cannot 
carry  enough  of  them  away  to  Tientsin.  They  crowd  into 
•railway  trucks  and  even  on  the  tops  of  vans  and  coaches. 
If  there  is  room  for  the  individual  there  is  none  for  his  lug- 
gage and  from  his  precarious  position  on  the  steps  or  couplings 
he  reluctantly  watches  it  disappear  on  the  railway  platform, 
left  behind. 

There  is  no  need  of  flight — it  is  panic  that  sets  this  pace. 
There  is  no  need  for  everyone  to  flee — a  few  can  find  refuge 

96 


OCTOBER    IN    PEKING 

in  the  Legation  Quarter.  Officials  who  have  condemned  for- 
eign powers  for  keeping  foreign  troops  in  China  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  accept  the  protection  which  their  presence  and  the 
Legation  Quarter  fortifications  offer.  Officials  are  hard  to 
find.  They  are  like  foreign  money  now  to  the  Lung  Yu  Em- 
press Dowager  who  for  the  time  being  has  neither  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  or  a  foreign  loan  to  lean  upon.  Peking  and  its 
Versailles  were  near  to  their  Paris.  The  Palace  treasure 
guarded  by  the  American  General  Chaffee  in  the  Forbidden 
City  in  1900  and  1901,  she  hoards.  Some  say  it  is  £40,000,000, 
some  say  £50,000,000.  The  foreign  bankers  refuse  China  a 
small  loan  of  $3,000,000. 

October  15,  24,000  Imperialist  troops  are  under  way  to 
go  to  the  battle-field  before  Hankow.  Yin  Chang,  the  Min- 
ister of  War,  has  gone  to  the  South  and  on  the  I7th  is  in 
conference  with  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  at  Chang-teh-fu,  in  Honan. 

October  15,  the  foreign  correspondents  are  refused  right 
to  accompany  the  troops.  This  is  the  day  that  marks  the 
uprising  of  the  National  Assembly  which  is  not  to  meet  until 
the  22nd.  Nevertheless  sixty  out  of  its  196  representatives, 
who  are  present  in  Peking,  meet  and  pass  a  resolution  de- 
manding the  right  of  the  Szechuan  Assembly  to  meet  at  once, 
that  its  President  (Pu  Tien-chun)  be  released  from  prison  to 
preside  over  it,  and  that  Sheng  Hsuan-huai,  the  Imperial  Com- 
missioner for  negotiating  foreign  loans  in  Peking,  be  dis- 
missed as  soon  as  possible.  These  it  submits  October  16  by 
committee  in  person  to  the  Cabinet. 

Runs  have  begun  on  the  banks  and  the  Board  of  Finance 
hands  over  $125,000  to  meet  demands  of  the  small  depositors 
of  the  Government  deposit  bank.  The  Powers  view  the  re- 
bellion with  grave  concern.  The  Chinese  press  at  Peking 
comments  upon  the  suspicious  presence  of  the  Japanese  Ad- 
miral Kawashima,  and  Colonel  Saito  at  Hankow  when  the 
outbreak  occurs  and  the  charge  is  raised  of  Japanese  com- 
plicity in  the  rebellion.  It  was  Colonel  Saito  who  raised  the 
Chien-tao  question  by  which  Japan  acquired  special  rights 
in  eastern  Manchuria.  As  a  matter  of  fact  Colonel  Saito  is 
on  his  way  from  Peking  to  Szechuan  to  report  on  the  out- 

97 


break  there.  Ijuin,  the  Japanese  Minister  at  Peking,  in  view 
of  the  excitement  see  fit  to  deny  officially  the  charges. 

October  16,  refugees  from  the  regions  of  the  rebellion 
reach  the  coast  after  journeys  extending  to  700  and  1,000 
miles  and  seek  asylum  at  Shanghai.  Troop  trains  leave 
Peking  and  Paoting-fu  with  precision  and  order  surprising  to 
the  foreign  military  agents.  Peking  officials  estimate  that  not 
less  than  6,000  trained  soldiers  are  taking  part  in  the  rebel- 
lion but  do  not  know  yet  the  names  of  the  leaders  who  have 
organised  it.  October  18,  Japanese  officials  of  Tokio  regard 
the  situation  as  likely  to  develop  phases  alarming  to  outside 
nations.  The  Imperialist  Admiral  Sah  Chen-ping  has  arrived 
in  the  river  at  Hankow  with  the  flagship  and  a  fleet  of  eight 
gunboats. 

October  18  and  19,  General  Li  Yuan-hung  fights  the  "Bat- 
tle of  Kilometre  10,"  outside  Hankow.  Both  sides  claim  vic- 
tory. October  19,  the  Throne  begs  for  aid  in  rewards  and 
punishments  which  it  offers  to  stop  the  "rebellion  in  Szechuan, 
Hunan  and  Hupeh."  "We  hereby  order  that  those  who  have 
been  compelled  to  become  accessories  and  who  will  personally 
capitulate  at  an  early  date  will  be  allowed  to  repent  without 
being  punished  for  past  errors  no  matter  whether  they  are 
soldiers  or  common  people.  Any  person  who  shall  achieve 
merit  by  killing  the  rebels  or  arresting  and  tying  them  up  for 
presentation  to  Us  shall  be  specially  rewarded.  If  the  roll- 
call  lists  of  Revolutionists  be  found,  they  should  be  destroyed 
at  once,  so  that  no  one  shall  be  involved  in  the  trouble."  The 
Throne  commands  the  Minister  of  War,  General  Yin  Chang, 
"Viceroy"  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  Marshal  Tsen  Chun-hsuan,  and 
Commissioner  and  Director  Tuan  Fang  to  carry  out  these 
rewards  and  punishments.  They  are  a  kind  of  Imperial  Com- 
mission to  pacify  all  Central  China. 

To  replace  the  modern  troops  sent  to  Hankow,  the  Throne 
brings  in  a  division  of  its  old  style  troops  to  protect  Peking. 
It  is  ready  to  move  troops  from  Mukden  to  the  South.  A 
division  starts,  leaving  Chingwantao  for  Hankow  by  steamer. 
Twenty  thousand  men  altogether  have  been  dispatched  south- 
ward on  the  2Oth. 


OCTOBER    IN    PEKING 

There  are  eighteen  foreign  warships  at  Hankow,  and  land 
communications  are  cut.  Peking  and  the  outside  world  are 
receiving  their  news  by  foreign  wireless.  General  Yin  Chang 
has  reached  the  front  and  proclaimed  pardon  for  all  who 
desert  the  rebels  in  accordance  with  the  Throne's  edict.  The 
representatives  of  the  Powers  in  Peking  assume  that  all 
Southern  China  is  about  to  secede. 

It  is  a  gloomy  hour  in  Peking.  The  Middle  Kingdom 
already  trembles  with  the  footsteps  of  the  rebels,  and  now, 
October  22,  General  Li  Yuan-hung  in  his  capital  at  Wuchang 
doffs  his  queue.  It  is  reported  that  the  Emperor  has  fled,  that 
with  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  he  has  gone  to  Jehol, 
or  taken  refuge  in  the  Foreign  Legations. 

There  is  not  any  real  fighting  at  Hankow,  only  trumped- 
up  "battles."  It  is  in  this  situation  that  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's 
acknowledgment  of  his  appointment  and  his  prayer  for  time 
in  which  to  recover  from  his  leg  and  other  ills  reaches  the 
Throne.  It  is  in  such  a  critical  moment  that  he  adds  with 
exasperating  indifference  that  as  soon  as  he  thinks  it  is  in 
any  way  possible  for  him  to  work,  he  will  try  and  do  so.  It 
comes  coincident  with  the  opening  of  the  yet  more  trying 
National  Assembly.  Only  117  of  the  196  members  are  pres- 
ent, and  at  the  last  moment  a  substitute,  Prince  Shih  To,  ar- 
rives to  act  for  the  Prince  Regent  in  opening  the  Assembly. 

"Since  Our  accession  to  the  Throne,"  says  the  Emperor, 
"We  have  been  diligently  and  tremblingly  striving  to  attain 
an  ideal  Government  day  and  night.  Now,  upon  the  occasion 
of  opening  the  second  session  of  the  National  Assembly,  you 
members  should  respectfully  listen  to  Our  exhortations.  The 
present  civilisation  of  the  world  demands  that  constitutional 
government  should  take  the  foremost  precedence  of  all  im- 
portant affairs."  Continuing,  Prince  Shih  To  read  the  three 
closing  fourths  of  the  Regent's  and  Cabinet's  words  put  into 
Pu  Yi's  mouth,  consisting  of  the  best  specimens  of  that  worth- 
less drivel  from  the  Throne  which  the  reformers  and  revo- 
lutionaries utterly  despise. 

The  cities  of  Ichang  and  Changsha  go  over  to  the  rebels. 
The  revolutionary  spirit  has  broken  out  in  the  North,  the 

99 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

native  Press  is  defying  the  censorship.  Foreign  banks  have 
suspended  all  loan  negotiations  with  China,  and  October  24 
the  foreign  diplomatic  corps  has  taken  up  the  question,  of 
garrisoning  with  foreign  troops  the  line  of  communications 
to  Peking.  Foreign  women  and  children  in  the  interior  have 
been  ordered  by  their  Legations  to  concentrate  at  the  Treaty 
ports  and  in  the  capitals,  where  they  can  be  protected. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  still  confined  to  his  residence  by  "indis- 
position," an  ailment  that  gives  more  pain  to  the  Court  than 
to  Yuan,  for  in  a  state  of  desperation  it  has  made  all  arrange- 
ments to  flee  to  Jehol. 

Now  comes  October  25.  There  are  almost  too  many 
events  for  the  calendar.  Hsian-fu,  the  capital  of  Shensi, 
refuge  of  the  Court  in  1900,  revolts  and  sets  up  an  independ- 
ent Government.  China's  financial  condition  is  desperate. 
She  formally  requests  the  Powers  to  allow  her  to  postpone 
the  payment  of  monthly  instalments  of  the  Boxer  indemnity 
during  nine  months,  so  that  she  may  have,  ready  money  for 
the  war.  She  is  now  seeking  a  loan  of  taels  12,000,000.  All 
South-eastern  China  is  in  a  state  of  unrest.  Admiral  Sah 
Chen-ping's  gunboats  are  missing  from  Hankow,  and  are 
unable  to  find  any  friendly  port.  The  capital  of  Honan,  Kai- 
feng-fu,  is  at  the  mercy  of  revolted  soldiers.  General  Yin 
Chang  is  reported  unwilling  to  move  against  the  rebels,  who 
have  400  guns,  unless  his  troops  are  paid,  and  now  the  Na- 
tional Assembly  impeaches  Sheng  Hsuan-huai  and  demands 
his  dismissal  and  punishment.  He  has  received  anonymous 
letters  threatening  him  with  all  kinds  of  atrocities,  and  has 
intimated  to  the  Prince  Regent  his  desire  to  resign,  but  is 
not  permitted  to  do  so.  General  Feng  Shan,  a  Manchu,  sec- 
ond only  to  Yin  Chang  the  Minister  of  War,  in  the  Manchu 
military  lists,  is  assassinated  at  Canton  by  a  bomb.  The  Im- 
perial fleet  is  escaping  to  Shanghai.  The  Manchu  officials 
are  deserting  the  Yangtse  River  cities  for  Shanghai.  The 
National  Assembly  passes  its  impeachment  with  shouts  of 
"Decapitate  Sheng!"  The  city  of  Foochou  falls.  Canton  is 
ready  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  the  rebels.  The  capital  of 
Shantung,  Tsinan-fu,  is  with  the  Revolutionists.  Szechuan 

100 


OCTOBER    IN    PEKING 

is  now  completely  controlled  by  the  rebels.  The  condition 
of  the  Court  can  be  described  as  that  of  a  panic.  The  minds 
of  the  Court  personnel  cannot  be  described.  Manchu  Court 
members  are  seeking  leave  of  absence  and  foreign  protection. 

October  26,  the  Throne  surrenders  to  the  National  Assem- 
bly and  dismisses  the  Commissioner  for  the  negotiation  of 
the  foreign  loans,  Sheng  Hsuan-huai. 

Nothing  but  its  financial  desperation  and  desire  not  to 
offend  the  foreign  bankers  and  their  Governments  has  per- 
suaded it  to  hold  out  so  long  against  the  known  wishes  of  its 
revolutionaries,  but  now  it  seizes  the  opportunity  offered  it 
by  the  National  Assembly  and  makes  of  the  Imperial  Commis- 
sioner a  scapegoat.  It  endorses  the  charges  of  the  National 
Assembly  that  "the  source  of  the  rebellion  is  all  to  be  ex- 
plained as  having  been  caused  by  Sheng  Hsuan-huai,  Minister 
of  Posts  and  Communications,  who  has  cheated  and  deceived 
the  Throne,  violated  the  law,  and  added  to  the  hatred  of  the 
people.  He  obstructed  the  exchange  of  views  between  the 
people  and  the  Government,  depriving  the  National  Assem- 
bly and  the  Cabinet  of  the  right  of  consideration  and  decision. 
The  causes  of  revolt  in  Szechuan  may  be  mainly  attributed 
to  his  decision,  and  he  is  truly  the  chief  culprit  and  has  jeopar- 
dised the  State.  The  nationalisation  of  railways  is  intended 
,by  the  Throne  for  the  good  of  the  merchants  and  people,  yet 
Sheng  Hsuan-huai  has  been  incapable  of  divining  Our  virtuous 
idea.  He  has  received  high  favours  from  the  State,  but  is 
truly  ungrateful.  He  is  hereby  cashiered  instantly,  never 
again  to  be  employed." 

Tang  Shao-yi,  a  Cantonese  progressive  and  reformer  and 
chief  lieutenant  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  is  appointed  Minister  of 
Posts  and  Communications  in  his  stead,  but  this  does  not  stay 
the  revolutionary  deluge. 

The  National  Assembly  circulates  a  petition  demanding 
Sheng's  decapitation,  whereupon  the  French,  German,  and 
British  ministers  and  the  American  charge  d'affaires  visit 
Prince  Ching,  head  of  the  Foreign  Office,  and  lodge  an  objec- 
tion against  any  such  possible  decree.  Sheng  Hsuan-huai 
takes  refuge  in  the  Legation  Quarter,  and  an  international 

101 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

guard  of  the  four  Powers,  France,  Germany,  Great  Britain, 
and  the  United  States,  under  command  of  the  American  mili- 
tary attache,  Captain  Reeves,  escorts  him  to  the  foreign  set- 
tlement at  Tientsin.  At  the  railway  station  in  Tientsin,  in 
the  early  hours  of  October  28,  he  is  met  by  two  closed  car- 
riages under  the  care  of  the  American  Vice-Consul,  and  be- 
fore anyone  is  aware  is  taken  by  his  escort  of  foreign  soldjers 
marching  on  either  side  and  placed  safely  aboard  an  outgoing 
steamer  lying  in  the  river. 

It  is  still  the  27th,  and  October  is  under  full  headway. 
General  Li  Yuan-hung,  proclaimed  "President  of  the  Republic 
of  China,"  is  heard  above  the  wrath  of  the  people,  and  the 
venom  of  the  Throne  hurled  at  Sheng  Hsuan-huai.  The 
Throne  appropriates  taels  1,000,000  for  military  expenses  in 
Hupeh,  so  that  General  Yin  Chang  can  pay  his  troops  and 
attack  the  Revolutionists.  As  "men's  heads  rock  upon  their 
shoulders,"  the  Throne  totters.  As  it  totters  it  strikes  at 
men's  heads.  The  Imperial  Clan  decrees  death  for  the  rene- 
gade Viceroy  Jui  Cheng.  This  is  the  day  of  a  very  storm  of 
edicts.  Eighteen  appear  in  the  Official  Gazette,  fifteen  of 
which  refer  to  the  political  and  military  situation.  No  one 
knows  how  many  rescripts,  edicts,  and  orders  have  been 
thrown  off  secretly. 

The  wave  of  the  Throne's  courage  broke  when  the  Throne 
turned  upon  Sheng  Hsuan-huai.  Its  edict  was  greeted  by 
onlookers  as  the  signal  for  a  culmination  of  disasters.  Now, 
amid  the  anathemas  hurled  at  Sheng's  head,  the  distrust 
levelled  at  Viceroy  Jui  Cheng,  the  hope  in  Director  and  En- 
voy Tuan  Fang,  the  pain  of  the  assassination  at  Canton  of 
General  Feng  Shan,  is  heard  again  the  appeal  to  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai,  now  "Viceroy"  of  Hukuang.  To-day  an  edict  appoints 
him  Imperial  Commissioner  with  plenary  powers  over  all  the 
Yangtse  land  and  naval  forces.  Authority  for  suppression 
and  pacification  of  the  rebels  is  placed  in  his  hands.  "... 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  to  act  at  his  own  discretion  with  expedition, 
as  military  aspects  may  develop  a  thousand  changes  in  a  mo- 
ment," says  the  edict.  "The  Military  Council  and  the  Min- 
ister of  War  shall  not  interfere,  in  order  to  concentrate  au- 

102 


OCTOBER    IN    PEKING 

thority   [in  Yuan   Shih-k'ai]    for  the  speedy  achievement  of 
success." 

It  is  two  weeks  since  the  Throne  first  appealed  to  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  to  save  the  country  and  he  has  not  moved  from  his 
place  of  retirement.  Now  the  Throne's  second  appeal  is  balm 
warranted  to  cure  "rheumatism  of  the  leg."  To  a  man  who 
has  been  waiting  to  see  the  full  dimensions  of  a  rebellion 
which  the  errors  of  the  Throne  have  hurried  on  and  to  see 
the  full  penitence  of  the  Throne,  it  is  sufficient,  and  he  tele- 
graphs the  Throne  that  he  will  go  and  fixes  the  date  of  his 
departure.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  something  of  a  heroic  figure 
as  he  buckles  on  his  armour  in  his  country  home  near 
Changteh-fu,  and  in  accordance  with  the  Throne's  edict  "de- 
vises and  takes  proper  measures  so  as  to  accelerate  his  move- 
ments towards  the  front."  The  Throne  recalls  General  Yin 
Chang,  the  Manchu  Minister  of  War,  to  Peking,  and  appoints 
the  Chinese  Generals  Feng  Kuo-chang  and  Tuan  Chi-jui  to 
assist  and  not  hamper  Yuan  Shih-k'ai. 

October  28,  the  Throne  is  still  struggling  with  the  ques- 
tion of  Szechuan  and  the  problem  of  getting  its  appointees 
Tsen  Chun-hsuan  and  Tuan  Fang  to  the  front.  The  Revolu- 
tionists attack  General  Yin  Chang  before  Hankow,  which 
prevents  him  returning  to  Peking.  The  massacres  of  Man- 
chus  in  various  parts  of  the  Empire  have  inflamed  the  imagin- 
ation of  Manchus  and  Chinese  in  Peking,  where  a  counter 
massacre  of  revenge  by  Manchus  under  the  leadership  of 
Prince  Tsai  T'ao  is  feared.  The  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager 
turns  over  taels  4,000,000  from  her  privy  purse,  and  a  panic 
begins.  Six  thousand  men  of  the  2Oth  Division — part  of  the 
force  intended  to  carry  out  the  army  manoeuvres  at  Kaiping 
— refuse  to  entrain  at  Lanchou  to  go  to  Hankow,  but  instead 
send  a  memorial  to  Peking  requiring  the  immediate  granting 
of  a  Constitution.  The  Provincial  Assembly  at  Tientsin  and 
a  large  number  of  the  populace  there  declare  for  the  revolu- 
tionists. T'ai-yuan,  capital  of  Shansi,  adjoining  Chihli  Prov- 
ince, goes  over  to  the  Revolutionists,  who  massacre  the  Gover- 
nor and  many  Manchus.  October  29  an  edict  orders  the  cap- 
ture and  trial  of  the  renegade  Viceroy  Jui  Cheng.  Another 

103 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

commands  General  Yin  Chang  to  await  the  arrival  of  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai,  and  commands  that  he  and  Admiral  Sah  Chen-ping 
encourage  their  officers  and  men  to  recapture  Wuchang  and 
Hankow.  The  Government  is  prepared  to  cut  the  Peking- 
Hankow  Railway  to  prevent  the  Revolutionist  advance  on 
Peking. 

The  Revolutionists  lose  Hankow  to  General  Yin  Chang, 
whose  Imperialist  soldiers  begin  its  destruction  by  fire.  Their 
excesses  of  looting  and  debauchery  are  awful,  and  red  war 
is  now  loose  in  the  land.  October  30,  Hankow  begins  to 
burn. 

The  Government  prepares  to  resign.  All  the  princes  and 
high  ministers  write  their  resignations.  The  Throne  then 
issues  a  penitential  edict  confessing  its  shortcomings,  and 
follows  with  proclaiming  the  resignations  of  its  ministers. 
Shih  Hsu,  the  old  Grand  Councillor,  resigns  from  the  presi- 
dency of  the  National  Assembly.  Prince  Ching,  the  Premier, 
resigns  along  with  Na  Tung  and  Hsu  Shih-chang,  associate 
premiers  and  ministers  of  the  Foreign  Office;  Duke  Tsai  Tse, 
Minister  of  Finance;  Chou  Chia-lai,  Minister  of  State;  and 
Prince  Tsai  T'ao  of  the  Military  Council. 

But  wait,  they  have  arranged  something  else.  Under  these 
senior  ministers  have  been  condemned  all  the  reformers  of 
the  past  and  present  now  alive  against  whom  sentences  are 
lodged  in  the  Board  of  Punishments.  Some  are  banished, 
some  have  prices  on  their  heads.  The  star  of  these  is  rising. 
Those  ministers  whose  star  is  now  setting,  and  who  have 
"charged  with  punishment  the  scroll,"  want  no  Banquos  at 
their  tables,  no  assassins  with  bombs  at  their  doors.  General 
Feng  Shan's  fate  and  the  threats  against  Sheng  Hsuan-huai 
remind  them  of  this.  In  the  name  of  the  Emperor  and  under 
the  signatures  of  the  Prince  Regent  and  themselves,  they  issue 
a  decree  of  amnesty  and  pardon  for  political  offenders,  and 
walk  out. 

Bishop  Bashford  at  Shanghai,  quoting  De  Toqueville, 
commenting  on  China's  condition,  said :  "The  weakest  hour 
for  any  Government  follows  its  admission  of  the  necessity 
of  reform."  The  truth  of  this  axiom  was  demonstrated  in 

104 


OCTOBER    IN    PEKING 

the  Empire  and  in  Peking  by  lack  of  all  confidence  in  the 
Government.  On  the  3ist,  the  events  of  October  culminate 
and  the  Throne  is  already  seen  to  be  falling.  There  is  no 
Cabinet  because  it  has  resigned.  The  National  Assembly 
has  a  lengthy  conference  with  Prince  Ching,  now  merely  a 
privy  councillor.  Replying  to  the  National  Assembly,  the 
Throne  has  granted  an  immediate  Constitution  and  Parlia- 
ment. 

The  revolutionary  arm  of  the  troops  has  become  known 
as  the  Army  League,  which  now  controls  the  troops  of 
Shantung  and  Chihli.  "The  Regent  is  unnerved  and  weeps 
bitterly."  Without  leave,  officials  are  deserting  the  Capital 
for  Tientsin.  The  Chinese  number  possibly  600,000  in  Peking, 
with  Manchus  in  and  around  Peking  numbered  at  100,000. 
Each  fears  an  attack  from  the  other — the  Chinese  fearing 
massacre  from  the  Throne's  Manchu  troops.  "Peking  is  a 
powder  magazine."  High  mandarins  are  "deluging  the  Lega- 
tions with  appeals  for  protection."  The  Legation  Quarter 
though  in  no  danger  is  preparing  for  emergencies.  The  gates 
of  the  City  and  of  the  palaces  are  placed  under  stronger 
guards.  Foreign  troops  are  arriving,  and  in  Tientsin  they 
parade  the  native  City  to  over-awe  malcontents. 

By  all  these  signs  and  tokens,  the  machinery  of  the  Throne 
is  collapsed.  There  is  no  Throne  except  to  the  Imperial  Clan. 
There  is  absolutely  no  Government.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  tem- 
porising. He  has  not  yet  done  anything.  Edicts  continue 
to  be  issued,  but  they  are  without  force  except  where  they 
are  backed  up  by  money  disgorged  from  the  Imperial  purse. 
The  capitulation  of  the  Throne,  its  agents  and  ministers,  is 
complete.  Told  in  the  penitential  edict  released  October  30 
in  pursuance  of  the  plan  of  capitulation,  the  ministers  named 
put  into  the  mouth  of  the  child-Emperor  Pu  Yi  these  words : 

"I  have  reigned  for  three  years  and  have  always  acted 
conscientiously,  in  the  interests  of  the  people.  But  I  have 
not  employed  men  properly,  not  having  political  skill.  I  have 
employed  too  many  nobles  in  political  positions,  an  act  which 
has  contravened  constitutionalism.  On  railway  matters  some- 

105 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

one  whom   I  trusted   fooled  me.     Thus  public  opinion  was 
opposed  to  this  policy. 

"When  I  urge  reform,  officials  and  gentry  seize  the  op- 
portunity to  embezzle.  When  old  laws  are  abolished,  high 
officials  serve  their  own  ends.  Much  of  the  people's  money 
has  been  taken,  but  nothing  to  benefit  the  people  has  been 
achieved.  On  several  occasions,  edicts  have  promulgated  laws, 
but  none  have  been  obeyed.  The  people  are  grumbling,  yet 
I  do  not  know  of  it.  Disasters  loom  ahead,  but  I  do  not 
see  them. 

"In  Szechuan  trouble  first  occurred,  the  Wuchang  rebellion 
followed ;  now  alarming  reports  come  from  Shensi  and  Honan. 
In  Canton  and  Kiangsi  riots  appear.  The  whole  Empire  is 
seething,  the  minds  of  the  people  are  perturbed,  and  the  spirits 
of  our  nine  late  Emperors  are  not  able  to  enjoy  properly  the 
sacrifices  made  to  them,  while  it  is  feared  that  the  people 
will  suffer  grievously. 

"All  these  things  are  my  own  fault.  Hereby  I  announce 
to  the  world  that  I  swear  to  reform  and  with  Our  soldiers 
and  people  to  carry  out  the  Constitution  faithfully,  modifying 
legislation,  developing  the  interests  of  the  people  and  abolish- 
ing their  hardships,  all  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  and 
interests  of  the  people. 

"Old  laws  that  are  unsuitable  will  be  abolished.  The  union 
of  Manchus  and  Chinese  mentioned  by  the  late  Emperor,  I 
shall  carry  out. 

"As  regards  Hupeh  and  Hunan,  for  their  grievances, 
though  precipitated  by  the  .soldiers  and  caused  by  Jui 
Cheng,  I  only  blame  Myself,  because  I  had  mistakenly 
appointed  him.  The  soldiers  and  people  are  innocent. 
If  they  will  return  to  their  allegiance,  I  will  excuse  the 
past. 

"Being  a  very  small  person,  standing  at  the  head  of  My 
subjects,  I  see  that  My  heritage  is  nearly  falling  to  the  ground. 
I  regret  my  fault  and  repent  greatly.  I  can  only  trust  that 
My  subjects  will  support  the  soldiers  in  order  to  support 
Me,  to  comfort  the  millions  of  My  people,  to  hold  firmly  to 
the  eternity  of  the  Dynasty,  and  to  convert  danger  into 

106 


OCTOBER    IN    PEKING 

tranquillity.     The  patriotism  of  the  Empire's  subjects  will  be 
appreciated  and  trusted  for  ever. 

"Now  finances  and  diplomacy  have  reached  bed-rock. 
Even  if  all  unite,  there  is  still  fear  of  falling-.  But  if  the 
Empire's  subjects  will  not  regard  nor  honour  the  State,  and 
are  easily  misled  by  outlaws,  then  the  future  of  China  is  un- 
thinkable. I  am  most  anxious  by  day  and  night,  I  only  hope 
my  subjects  will  understand." 


CHAPTER  XI 

HANKOW— A   BATTLE 

Part  I 

CONFUSING  all  the  plans  of  the  Government  in  Peking 
and  bringing  it  to  a  state  of  collapse  and  ruin,  is  the 
revolution  centred  at  Wuchang,  and  the  Republic 
headed  by  General  Li  Yuan-hung. 

Whereas  October  is  the  month  of  the  downfall  of  the 
Throne,  it  is  the  month  of  the  rise  of  the  Republic.  October 
days  are  as  fateful  in  Wuchang  as  in  Peking.  The  Im- 
perialist Government  struggles  to  hold  merely  what  it  has, 
the  Revolutionists  have  to  create.  They  have  hardly  more  than 
a  division — not  more  than  8,000  really  trained  troops  to  start 
the  "People's  Army."  There  are  at  least  twelve  foreign- 
trained  divisions  in  the  Empire,  of  which  four  are  south  of 
the  Yangtse  River.  These  latter,  together  with  one  division 
in  Manchuria,  are  claimed  by  the  revolutionaries  as  being  on 
their  side.  A  revolutionary  rebellion  has  been  planned  by 
Sun  Yat-sen,  but  its  headquarters  are  to  be  at  Canton.  The 
revolutionary  movement  has  grown  so  rapidly  in  these  last 
days  of  the  Empire  that  there  are  many  leaders,  and  now 
that  circumstances  have  forced  an  outbreak  at  Wuchang,  the 
conspirator  and  revolutionary  Sun  Yat-sen's  plans  are  dis- 
located. It  is  necessary  for  General  Li  Yuan-hung  to  reform 
all  and  to  bring  all  revolutionary  elements  into  harmony  at 
Wuchang. 

After  issuing  his  first  proclamation  for  the  guidance  of 
the  people,  threatening  punishments  and  promising  rewards, 
General  Li  Yuan-hung  addresses  a  letter  to  Admiral  Sah, 
asking  him  to  join  the  revolt.  According  to  the  Revolutionist 
newspaper,  Ta  Han  Pao,  the  first  soldiers  organised  at 
Wuchang  are  the  gendarmes,  to  preserve  order  in  the  streets 
of  the  three  cities,  Wuchang,  Hankow,  and  Hanyang.  To 

108 


HANKOW— A   BATTLE 

restore  order  and  discipline  after  the  promiscuous  fighting  in 
the  streets  of  Wuchang,  General  Li  Yuan-hung  commands 
officers  and  men,  and  especially  recruits,  not  to  ramble  about 
the  streets,  nor  leave  their  camps  without  orders.  He  forbids 
ransacking  of  houses  without  instructions,  orders  camp  guards 
organised  to  maintain  military  order,  and  the  men  instructed 
by  speakers  who  are  to  address  them  respecting  the  revolu- 
tion. 

Wuchang  originates  the  "dare  to  die"  soldier's  oath,  that 
afterwards  achieves  so  much  newspaper  fame.  Money  pre- 
sents are  given  to  the  soldiers  of  a  regiment  of  artillery  who 
adopt  a  determination  to  sacrifice  their  lives  for  the  republican 
cause.  Scouts  are  next  organised,  and  rewards  are  offered 
for  the  capture  of  renegades  and  enemies.  Any  band  of 
soldiers  that  can  capture  a  gunboat  will  receive  $250  (gold) 
per  man.  Anyone  capturing  Viceroy  Jui  Cheng  or  the  Hupeh 
Commander-in-Chief,  General  Chang  Piao,  will  receive  $500 
(gold).  Five  hundred  dollars  (gold)  will  be  paid  to  the 
family  of  any  soldier  killed  in  battle. 

Under  the  inspiration  of  these  announcements  the  re- 
publican army  more  than  trebles  in  size  and  grows  until  the 
Commander-in-Chief  announces  that  he  has  all  the  soldiers 
he  needs.  The  Ta  Han  Pao  says  that  he  has  given  the  veteran 
soldiers  all  double  pay  so  they  can  send  money  home.  The 
Amazon  idea  has  taken  hold  in  its  ancient  Chinese  form,  and 
a  Wuchang  student-Theroigne  proposes  to  start  a  regiment 
of  Amazons.  Madam  Li,  wife  of  General  Li  Yuan-hung,  is 
the  centre  of  the  woman's  republican  movement  and  is  pre- 
paring for  Red  Cross  work.  She  is  to  visit  the  Red  Cross 
stations  at  Hankow  and  Hanyang.  General  Li  Yuan-hung 
makes  a  personal  inspection  of  the  republican  army  to  examine 
into  the  discipline  and  to  re-establish  the  military  courts.  The 
soldiers  are  busy  organising  their  commissariat,  are  making 
flags,  and  have  opened  the  old  powder-mills  and  are  making 
powder.  Provisions  have  gone  up.  No  meat  is  to  be  had, 
eggs  are  more  than  four  times  the  ordinary  market  price, 
with  fish  and  chicken  in  proportion,  to  say  nothing  of  turnips. 
This  greatly  concerns  General  Li  Yuan-hung,  who  relies  upon 

109 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

the  normal  progress  of  industry  and  business  for  success  in 
financing  the  revolution.  He  has  been  a  commissariat  officer 
himself,  and  as  the  purchaser  for  the  Wuchang  army  in  the 
past  is  known  as  the  "Man  who  won't  take  squeeze."  The 
Press  prints  the  following  story  about  him: 

"You  do  not  seem  to  be  acquainted  with  the  customs 
of  the  place,"  said  a  merchant  with  whom  he  had  dealings. 
"It  is  customary,"  he  continues,  "to  give  army  purchasers 
some  sort  of  commission." 

"I  do  not  want  any  squeeze,"  said  Li,  "and  the  reason 
why  I  have  come  to  this  particular  shop  is  because  others 
persist  in  offering  me  'squeezes.' " 

The  new  Government  in  its  organisation  has  recognised 
the  Press.  One  editor  first  becomes  chief  of  the  republican 
headquarters  in  Hankow  and  is  then  advanced  to  be  Taotai, 
or  highest  civil  official,  there.  The  newspaper  men  have 
secured  General  Li's  approval  of  cutting  the  queue.  They 
inaugurate  the  fashion  in  the  three  cities,  and  at  the  same 
time  put  on  foreign  dress.  Queue-cutting  is  then  ostentatiously 
taken  up  by  the  soldiers,  and  it  is  a  notable  day,  October  22, 
when,  in  the  quiet  of  his  home,  the  household  barber  cuts 
off  the  queue  of  the  Commander-in-Chief  and  leader.  Queue- 
cutting  in  the  Republic  is  thus  officially  sanctioned. 

The  appearance  of  Venus  in  the  early  morning  just  after 
the  revolt  had  greatly  impressed  the  common  people  as  an 
omen  of  New  China.  Another  omen  was  a  moon-bow  seen 
on  the  night  of  the  revolt.  Now,  with  the  fall  of  their  leader's 
queue,  came  an  eclipse  of  the  sun.  The  mysterious  and  super- 
natural exercise  greater  power  in  convincing  the  people  of 
the  importance  of  the  revolutionary  movement  than  do  the 
famine,  death,  and  destruction  of  warfare,  which  are  actually 
but  an  exaggeration  of  their  daily  life,  meaning  little  more 
than  that  the  "evil  influences"  have  for  the  time  being  gained 
the  upper  hand  of  the  "benevolent  influences." 

The  people  having  gotten  a  taste  of  blood-letting  and 
looting,  are  engaged  in  Manchu  hunting.  They  did  not  wait 
for  the  Manchus  to  vacate  their  houses  but  hunted  them 
out  like  wild  animals.  The  abandoned  homes,  some  of  them 

no 


HANKOW— A   BATTLE 

very  large,  running  up  to  200  or  300  rooms,  are  being  occupied 
by  the  military  department  and  the  recruits  as  they  are  enlisted. 
In  one  house,  in  an  otherwise  empty  room,  eight  corpses  are 
found,  three  of  men  and  five  of  women,  all  hanging  by  the 
neck  from  the  beams.  They  committed  suicide  rather  than 
fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Revolutionists.  Those  Manchus  who 
escaped  the  first  massacre  are  waiting  favourable  opportunities 
to  steal  away.  Hsi  Kang,  a  Manchu  attached  to  the  prefect's 
yamen,  tries  to  escape  from  Wuchang  disguised  as  a  water- 
carrier,  while  his  wife  follows  in  a  common  sedan  chair.  The 
Revolutionist  newspapers  say  that  they  are  discovered  just 
outside  the  city  by  the  patrols  and  immediately  executed.  A 
man  named  Chung  Shan  connected  with  the  Department  of 
Public  Granaries  escapes,  and  the  baffled,  indignant  people 
execrate  him  for  sharp  dealing  with  the  farmers  and  revenge- 
fully behead  his  son,  who  is  left  behind. 

"Manchu  boys  in  the  mission  schools  are  in  some  cases 
the  only  members  of  their  families  left  alive,"  says  the  China 
Post  at  Hankow.  "Two  Manchus  were  killed  on  the  Sin- 
seng  Road  yesterday  within  view  of  the  windows  of  our 
office.  They  were  living  in  hotels  in  Wuchang  from  which 
they  escaped,  but  being  identified  here  were  promptly  dis- 
patched, and  the  head  of  one  was  stuck  up  on  a  lamp-post." 
The  Manchu  soldiers  who  failed  to  get  across  the  Yangtse 
after  the  fall  of  Wuchang  took  to  the  country,  where  the 
villagers  gather  in  thousands  and  pursue  them.  Fleeing  for 
their  lives,  the  soldiers  soon  exhaust  their  ammunition  and 
are  beaten  to  death  or  escape  in  disguise.  The  magistrate  of 
a  distrfct  outside  Wuchang  first  sends  away  his  family  and 
then  disguises  himself  as  a  countryman,  shaving  his  mous- 
tache and  changing  his  clothes.  He  is  caught  by  the  militia 
and  forwarded  to  Wuchang. 

The  queue-cutting  spirit  gives  an  impetus  to  these  bar- 
barities, whereupon  General  Li  Yuan-hung  is  obliged  to  issue 
a  proclamation  stating  that  the  extermination  of  the  Manchus 
is  not  a  part  of  the  revolutionary  programme.  The  Revolu- 
tionists simply  want  to  make  the  Manchus  powerless  in  order 
to  establish  the  Republic.  A  supposed  Manchu  is  killed  on 

in 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

a  charge  of  poisoning  wells.  According  to  a  Chinese  reporter, 
his  body  is  quartered  and  exposed  in  the  streets.  When  two 
Chinese  are  captured  trying  to  poison  the  wells,  Revolutionists 
find  that  the  Manchus  are  not  their  only  enemies.  The  sus- 
pects are  charged  with  having  packages  of  poison  and  are 
beheaded.  Criers  are  sent  into  the  streets  beating  gongs 
and  warning  the  people  not  to  drink  from  the  wells. 

The  people  are  hungry,  and  General  Li  Yuan-hung  has 
two  problems,  that  of  money  and  that  of  rice.  He  has  con- 
fiscated all  public  treasure,  has  restarted  the  Mint,  and  is 
issuing  republican  script.  He  legalises  the  National  Govern- 
ment's banknotes  as  well  as  the  notes  of  banks.  The  banks 
in  the  three  cities  have  been  closed  by  runs,  and  from  his 
captured  bullion  he  makes  loans  to  permit  them  to  re-open 
and  to  revive  business.  But  on  account  of  the  stagnation 
of  business  and  the  increase  in  recruits  he  cannot  get  enough 
rice,  and  is  sending  agents  to  the  rice  districts  to  persuade 
the  people  to  send  cargoes  to  Wuchang  as  formerly.  Rep- 
resentatives arrive  bringing  the  submissions  of  outlying  cities, 
and  the  army  sends  back  deputies  with  them  to  get  rice  for 
its  men.  Stories  of  the  landing  of  rice  cargoes  on  the  water 
front  are  circulated  all  over  the  City.  The  revolutionaries 
are  led  into  searching  craft  on  the  river  in  hope  of  finding 
contraband  rice  which  they  can  confiscate.  At  least,  they 
find  contraband  accessories,  as  the  following  from  the  Press 
shows :  "The  steam  launches  belonging  to  the  traitor  Feng 
Sao-chou  and  his  property  in  the  street  have  been  confiscated. 
Since  the  outbreak  he  has  several  times  made  use  of  his 
launches  to  transport  rice  and  coal  for  the  Manchus." 

Under  the  security  of  the  guns  of  Serpent  Hill,  which 
hold  the  Imperial  fleet  at  a  distance,  the  Revolutionists  continue 
the  organisation  of  the  Government.  General  Li  Yuan-hung 
issues  a  proclamation  abolishing  likin,  one  of  the  most  vexa- 
tious of  China's  taxes  both  to  native  and  foreign  traders. 
All  but  salt,  tobacco,  wine,  and  opium  are  exempted.  The 
land  tax  for  six  months  is  remitted.  He  warns  the  people 
against  fabrications  of  rumours  that  "damp  the  ardour  of 
the  soldiers,"  such  as  that  large  forces  are  arriving  from 

112 


HANKOW— A    BATTLE 

the  North.  His  proclamation  notifies  the  people  that  half 
of  the  Northern  men  are  highly  patriotic  and  in  favour  of 
the  Revolution,  and  are  not  to  be  feared.  They  may  be 
depended  upon  to  declare  in  favour  of  the  republican  cause 
and  join  in  suppressing  the  Manchus  and  reviving  the  au- 
thority of  the  Han  people.  Anyone  caught  circulating 
rumours  will  be  promptly  dealt  with  according  to  military 
law.  He  hears  that  both  officers  and  soldiers  have  been 
seen  in  pleasure-houses,  whereas  they  should  sleep  on  brush- 
wood and  drink  gall,  so  as  not  to  forget  China's  condition. 
At  such  time  as  this,  indulgence  means  ruin  for  the  Revolution, 
and  all  officers  are  required  to  take  warning  and  rigorously 
suppress  these  practices. 

In  their  security  and  preoccupation  the  Revolutionists  do 
not  forget  their  antagonists,  of  whom  they  hear  various  re- 
ports. ''General  Chang  Piao  has  been  wounded  in  the  left 
shoulder  by  a  bullet,  and  is  so  sick  of  vexation  that  he  is 
likely  to  die  from  it,  and  takes  no  food."  "Admiral  Sah  has 
been  pondering  deeply  over  General  Li's  letters  to  him,  and 
it  is  expected  that  he  will  openly  declare  for  the  Revolution 
ere  long."  The  Hanyang  iron-works  have  closed,  and  the 
Press  hears  that  it  is  "because  they  are  the  property  of  Sheng 
Hsuan-huai,  who  ought  to  be  cut  into  ten  thousand  pieces." 
They  have  heard  that  when  the  Hupeh  troops  with  Tuan  Fang 
heard  the  news  of  Wuchang,  they  proclaimed  the  independence 
of  Szechuan,  killed  Tuan  Fang,  are  taking  cities  on  their  way 
back,  and  are  expected  at  an  early  date.  They  do  not  mention 
Tuan  Fang's  head,  which  his  bodyguard  is  bringing. 

Sun  Yat-sen  is  mentioned  early  in  events  at  Wuchang, 
where  his  brother  Sun  Yu  has  been  made  President  of  the 
Provincial  Assembly  to  succeed  Tang  Hua-lung,  who  has  been 
elected  Governor  of  Hupeh.  Sun  Yat-sen's  first  appearance 
upon  the  ground  where  he  seems  to  have  stationed  his  brother 
on  an  important  outpost  is  that  of  the  bright  angel  of  revolu- 
tion. In  the  imaginations  of  the  poverty-stricken  republicans 
he  is  bringing  £400,000  sterling  and  17  war- vessels,  and  will 
arrive  at  Wuchang  shortly.  But  the  real  situation  is  that, 
having  organised  the  civil  governments  for  Wruchang,  Hankow, 

"3 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

and  Hanyang,  the  Revolutionists  are  beginning  to  be  anxious 
about  what  the  Imperialists  are  doing. 

General  Chang  Piao,  after  being  cashiered  by  the  Throne 
and  ordered  to  speedily  punish  the  revolutionaries  severely, 
set  obediently  about  his  task.  He  claimed  to  have  gotten 
away  from  Wuchang  with  about  2,000  men.  He  made  his 
camp  at  Seven  Mile  Creek,  just  below  Hankow,  in  company 
with  the  gunboats  and  the  Chinese  cruiser  Ch'u-yu.  The 
Revolutionists,  with  their  artillery  on  Serpent  Hill,  Wuchang, 
commanded  the  upper  reaches  of  the  river  and  its  com- 
munications with  Hanyang  and  Hankow.  The  Imperialist 
war-vessels  could  not  go  above  Hankow,  but  could  support 
General  Chang  Piao  and  the  Northern  Imperialist  troops 
from  below.  The  Revolutionists  asked  to  be  allowed  to  send 
1,500  men  through  the  Foreign  Concessions,  on  account  of 
the  paved  roads  there,  but  were  refused  by  the  foreign  consuls, 
and  instead  marched  along  the  railway  embankment  toward 
Seven  Mile  Creek. 

October  15,  General  Chang  Piao  announces  that  he  has 
4,500  troops  at  Kilometre  10,  to  which  place  he  has  moved 
his  men  to  meet  the  Revolutionists.  October  16,  Admiral 
Sah  Chen-ping  with  his  flagship  arrives  to  command  the 
cruisers  and  gunboats  that  are  to  assist  in  the  recovery  of 
the  three  cities.  The  river  contains  four  British,  two 
American,  two  German,  and  one  Japanese  war-vessels  anchored 
opposite  the  Foreign  Concessions  of  Hankow.  October  17, 
two  additional  British  and  one  additional  German  ships  arrive. 
There  are  present  the  Japanese  and  British  admirals, 
Kawashima  and  Winsloe. 

General  Li  Yuan-hung  sends  a  notification  to  the  foreign 
consuls  in  Hankow  that  "he  intends  to  attack  the  Imperialists, 
which  he  does  under  cover  of  early  morning,  October  18. 
A  masked  battery  on  the  Wuchang  side  first  opens  fire  oh 
Admiral  Sah's  fleet  to  cover  the  advance  of  the  infantry 
toward  Kilometre  10.  The  infantry  is  assisted  by  five  field- 
guns.  The  gunboats  reply  to  the  masked  battery,  which  ceases 
after  the  land  battle  begins. 

The  "battle  of  Kilometre  10"  begins.     9:30  A.   M.  there 

114 


Revolutionist  Volunteers.     Some  wear  the  white  brassard,  the  sign  of  revolt 


Revolutionist  Soldiers  at  Kilometer  10 
DEFENSE  OF  HANKOW 


HANKOW— A   BATTLE 

are  100  killed  and  wounded,  and  the  battle  rests  until  2:30 
p.  M.,  when  the  Revolutionists  advance  1,000  infantry  from 
their  reinforcements  arrived  from  Wuchang,  among  which 
are  nine  additional  field-guns.  General  Yin  Chang,  Imperialist 
Minister  of  War,  arrives  at  Hsiao-kan,  40  miles  up  the  railway, 
and  sends  five  train-loads  of  troops  to  Kilometre  10,  and  at 
5  P.  M.  the  Revolutionists  are  retiring  toward  Race  Course 
Road  that  leads  into  the  Hankow  Concessions.  They  carry 
with  them  150  wounded  and  leave  50  dead.  Buildings  set 
on  fire  by  shells  along  the  railway  to  Hankow  burn  until 
8  :3O  P.  M.  General  Li  Yuan-hung  issues  a  bulletin  claiming 
a  great  "victory."  On  the  strength  of  this  victory  he  raises 
his  reward  on  the  head  of  his  late  colleague  and  present 
antagonist,  General  Chang  Piao,  to  taels  5,000.  Resting 
quietly  aboard  his  launch  in  Seven  Mile  Creek,  General  Chang 
Piao  says  he  has  no  intention  of  renewing  the  fighting  until 
reinforcements  arrive  from  Peking. 

October  19,  the  Revolutionists,  reinforced  with  3,000  addi- 
tional men  from  Wuchang,  return  to  the  attack  on  Kilometre 
10.  Towards  evening  the  Imperialists  give  way,  retreating  up 
the  railway,  strewing  the  embankment  with  cartridges  and  ac- 
coutrements. At  6  p.  M.  the  victorious  Revolutionists,  led  by 
their  General  and  accompanied  by  the  Wuchang  viceregal 
band,  return  to  Hankow,  their  troops  in  possession  of  the 
battle-field. 

All  that  was  seen  of  this  two  days'  fighting  from  a  foreign 
window  in  the  Concessions  is  described  by  an  absorbed  on- 
looker. He  sees  the  troops  move  past,  then  25  wounded  men 
brought  to  the  London  Mission  Hospital,  a  mob  of  rebel  coolies 
destroy  Culvert  Bridge,  a  train  loaded  with  Imperialists  com- 
ing down  to  the  Bridge,  where  officers  descend  from  the 
engine,  make  an  inspection  and  retire,  after  which  the  mob 
of  coolies  resumes. 

There  are  large  numbers  of  the  Imperialists,  and  toward 
three  o'clock  the  onlooker  sees  the  rebels  advance  and  the 
Imperialists  in  the  train  move  back  behind  Kilometre  10. 
The  cheering  of  the  Revolutionists  is  louder  than  the  firing, 
and  only  a  dozen  shots  can  be  heard.  These  shots  are  sent 

"5 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

after  the  train,  and  great  numbers  of  Revolutionists  advance 
along  the  railway  embankment.  They  fire  into  the  south 
side  of  Chinese  Town  ahead  of  them,  where  three  shells 
from  the  Chinese  cruisers  drive  them  away.  They  desert 
their  little  field-gun  which  stands  on  the  embankment  for 
a  time  and  then  disappears,  either  being  destroyed  or  recap- 
tured. A  shell  from  one  of  the  Chinese  cruisers  drops  near 
the  pigeon-shooting  tower  in  the  Race  Club  grounds,  and 
Revolutionist  officers  directing  operations  from  it  come  down 
chop  chop.  Only  two  shots  graze  the  framework.  By  5  p.  M. 
the  Revolutionist  troops  seeming  thoroughly  frightened  by 
the  fire  from  the  cruisers  are  retreating  as  fast  as  they  can. 
One  horse  is  riderless.  They  retreat  as  far  as  Race  Course 
Road,  after  which  they  are  hidden  from  the .  writer's  view. 
The  Imperialists  on  land  do  not  fire  at  any  time. 

October  19,  the  onlooker  sees  a  handful  of  Imperialists 
just  this  side  of  Kilometre  10  Station.  Several  Revolutionist 
officers  are  up  in  the  Race  Club  pigeon-shooting  tower.  The 
rebels  are  making  a  detour  by  the  north  at  double  quick.  No 
firing  except  a  few  shots  from  Imperialists'  outposts.  At 
i  no  P.  M.  the  cruisers  are  manoeuvring  in  the  river.  The 
Revolutionist  troops  are  followed  by  large  numbers  of  coolies. 
A  mule  drawing  a  field-gun  appears  on  the  railway  embank- 
ment. The  cruisers  go  down  to  Seven  Mile  Creek.  After 
twenty  minutes'  silence,  the  Revolutionists  fire  three  shells 
into  the  Imperialists'  position  and  a  company  of  Revolutionist 
soldiers  advances  along  the  railway.  About  thirty  of  the 
Imperialists'  khaki  tents  are  seen.  The  cruisers  are  still  farther 
down  the  river.  The  Revolutionists  at  two  o'clock  send  coolies 
to  Kilometre  10  Station  to  investigate,  and  finding  no  one, 
the  troops  advance  and  carry  away  the  Imperialists'  tents, 
and  return  in  great  numbers  to  Hankow. 

This  is  the  "battle  of  Kilometre  10."  It  is  like  America; 
it  is  like  Russia,  and  even  more  like  China.  Another  foreign 
spectator  said  one  of  the  shells  fired  by  the  Imperialists  and 
accidentally  landing  in  the  German  Concession  was  made  of 
wood,  and  the  Revolutionist  newspapers  report  that  the 
"bullets  and  cartridges  captured  from  the  Imperialists  at 

116 


HANKOW— A    BATTLE 

Liu-kia-miao  are  of  wood."  "This  precisely  recalls  the  story 
of  the  Chinese-Japanese  War,"  observes  the  Press ;  "some 
great  official  has  evidently  found  a  contractor  who  is  willing 
to  supply  wooden  shells  at  the  price  of  steel,  and  divide  the 
difference."  Behold  the  Chinese  version  of  the  wooden  nut- 
meg of  Connecticut. 

It  is  a  busy  time  in  the  Foreign  Concessions  and  on  the 
river.  October  18,  a  German  torpedo-boat  came  bearing  the 
German  Vice-Admiral,  Von  Krosig,  and  additional  German 
and  British  war-vessels  arrived.  One  British  vessel,  the 
Britomart,  dropped  down  the  river  to  act  as  relay  for  wireless 
telegrams  that  are  the  only  source  of  information  for  the 
outside  world  respecting  what  is  going  on  in  the  heart  and 
centre  of  China's  industrial  life  and  revolution.  Another  has 
gone  up  the  river  to  Ichang,  which  has  been  taken  possession 
of  by  the  Revolutionists. 

After  raising  the  price  on  his  antagonist's  head,  Li  Yuan- 
hung  contents  himself  for  two  days  with  securing  the  removal 
of  the  Chinese  Imperial  flag  from  the  foreign  merchant- 
vessels  on  the  river — their  captains  agreeing  not  to  fly  the 
Imperialist  flag  while  at  Hankow. 

Firing  does  not  begin  again  until  October  22,  but  continues 
throughout  the  day,  both  the  naval  and  land  forces  participat- 
ing. This  is  characterised  by  observers  in  the  Foreign  Con- 
cessions as  '.'no  startling  development."  Events  are  not  mov- 
ing fast  enough  for  the  foreign  spectators,  who  ridicule  the 
type  of  warfare  with  which  they  are  being  entertained. 
"I  have  been  down  to  Kilometre  10  Station  this  afternoon," 
says  a  sight-seer,  "and  found  the  rebels  fortifying  its  northern 
side.  They  are  there  in  large  numbers,  bringing  over  quanti- 
ties of  ammunition  from  Wuchang.  If  the  Northerners  are 
willing  to  fight,  we  think  the  rebels  will  be  thoroughly  beaten 
back.  They  are  a  motley  crew." 

The  Imperialist  land  troops  are  now  directed  by  General 
Yin  Chang  from  Hsiao-kan  October  27.  They  are  preparing 
to  take  Hankow,  and  the  only  battle  of  the  rebellion  has 
commenced. 

The  onlooker  who,  October  19,  poked  fun  at  the  "battle 

117 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

of  Kilometre  10,"  hears  that  the  casualties  for  two  days  are 
estimated  at  2,000.  But  it  is  no  doubt  an  exaggeration. 

General  Li  Yuan-hung  has  issued  an  order  placing  his 
soldiers  under  stricter  discipline  on  account  of  their  un- 
organised fighting  at  the  battle  of  Kilometre  10,  and  now  its 
effects  may  be  seen  even  from  the  Foreign  Concessions.  The 
spectator  standing  in  the  window  of  the  foreign  hospital  sees 
the  coolie  recruits  of  the  Revolutionist  army  working  up  the 
railway  line  righting  the  Imperialist  machine-guns.  Their 
efforts  are  futile  but  resolute.  One  man  steps  behind  a  tree 
to  put  a  cartridge  clip  into  his  rifle,  and  having  done  so 
marches  on,  kneels,  fires  with  deliberate  aim,  and  advances. 
All  do  the  same,  repeating  these  tactics  until  bowled  over. 
All,  sooner  or  later,  go  down  before  the  machine-guns,  but 
this  has  not  deterred  those  behind.  The  Revolutionists  are 
making  a  determined  attack  on  the  Imperialists'  position. 

To  the  Imperialist  officers  it  was  like  a  massacre.  It  gave 
the  Northern  army  a  terrible  taste  of  blood.  "In  the  morn- 
ing before  dawn,"  said  an  Imperialist  colonel,  "the  Revolution- 
ists were  reported  advancing.  As  it  became  light  we  could 
make  them  out  through  the  glasses  coming  forward  in  strag- 
gling lines,  which  I  estimated  at  about  1,500  men.  I  had  only 
about  800  men,  but  beside  our  rifles  we  had  machine-guns. 
The  enemy  continued  in  his  straggling  line  formation,  and 
when  his  colour-bearer  came  into  rifle  range,  I  ordered  up  a 
dozen  of  our  sharpshooters.  When  the  lines  arrived  within 
good  firing  distance,  I  ordered  the  sharpshooters  to  pick  off 
the  standard-bearer,  plainly  visible  under  a  broad  banner  of 
white  foreign  sheeting  with  the  characters  of  the  Republican 
army  written  upon  it.  The  man  fell,  and  the  standard  was 
picked  up  by  another.  He  also  fell,  and  this  was  repeated  until 
eight  men  had  been  killed  under  the  standard.  The  rebel  line 
was  drawing  in,  and  I  brought  forward  the  machine-guns.  By 
this  time  the  rebels  were  getting  too  near,  and  there  was 
nothing  to  do  but  mow  them  down.  Their  force  was  ob- 
literated." 

The  attack  of  the  Revolutionists  was  assisted  by  the  Wu- 
chang forts,  which  bombarded  the  gunboats.  The  fighting 

118 


HANKOW-^A   BATTLE 

was  so  near  to  the  Concessions  that  the  families  of  foreigners 
were  all  removed  to  safety  down  the  river.  The  Imperialists 
captured  and  lost  the  railway  station  before  the  reckless  ad- 
vance of  the  Revolutionists  in  close  formation  cheering  and 
firing  wildly  in  face  of  the  machine-guns.  The  Revolutionists 
in  the  afternoon  of  October  28  lose  the  railway  station  to  the 
Imperialists,  which,  October  29,  the  Imperialists  still  hold. 

Having  advanced  ten  kilometres,  General  Feng  Kuo-chang, 
in  command  of  the  Imperialist  left,  has  turned  the  Revolution- 
ists' right  flank  and  is  preparing  to  enter  Hankow.  He  has 
lost  40  killed  and  150  wounded,  but  has  captured  all  of  the 
Revolutionist  camp  equipage  and  stores,  as  well  as  arms,  at 
Kilometre  10. 

The  Imperialists  claim  to  have  captured  30  guns  and  to 
have  inflicted  losses  of  400  upon  the  Revolutionists  the  first 
day.  The  Revolutionist  loss  is  given  at  500  men  killed,  1,500 
wounded,  together  with  prisoners  and  15  field-guns. 

The  Imperialists  enter  Hankow.  The  Revolutionists  at- 
tack for  half  an  hour,  keeping  up  a  brave  defense  at  the  same 
time  from  the  housetops.  The  fighting  is  one-sided,  and  the 
rabble  Revolutionist  troops  are  driven  to  bay  by  the  Imperial- 
ist trained  army.  Fires  have  been  started  either  by  explosions 
of  shells  or  by  incendiaries  and  the  burning  of  Hankow  begins. 

The  battle  is  waged  with  uncertain  effect  all  throughout 
October  30.  The  Revolutionists  make  a  strong  attack  from 
their  base  across  the  Han  River  at  Hanyang,  but  lose  three 
field-guns.  Losing,  they  offer  a  determined  resistance.  Their 
losses,  October  31,  are  no  less  than  1,000  killed  and  3,000 
wounded.  What  the  Imperialist  losses  are  no  observer  can 
find  out.  Exasperated  by  the  Revolutionists  shooting  their 
men  down  from  cover,  among  the  crowded  houses,  and  the 
last  stinging  blows  they  receive  as  they  invade  Hankow,  they 
begin  to  burn.  Fires  spring  up  everywhere,  and  as  the  last 
day  of  October  closes,  the  climax  of  conflagration  is  reached 
— two  thirds  of  the  city  are  reduced  to  ashes.  For  three  days 
street  fighting  and  massacre  rage  with  the  flames.  It  is  a 
wild  scene  of  burning,  looting,  and  killing,  by  the  Chinese 
themselves,  carried  on  by  the  worst  elements  which  a  state  of 

119 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

war  can  let  loose  to  prey  upon  men,  and  by  the  soldiers  of 
two  contending  armies.  The  soldiers  of  both  sides  kill  prison- 
ers and  wounded  and  commit  all  the  barbarities  of  savage 
warfare. 

"The  end  of  the  British  Concession  presents  at  present  a 
strange  sight,"  writes  a  British  observer.  "Soldiers  and  peo- 
ple are  looting  the  doomed  city,  the  latter  making  their  way 
on  to  the.  Concession  with  their  booty.  There,  in  accordance 
with  our  declared  neutrality,  looters  have  to  give  up  their 
spoils  unless  they  can  prove  their  right  to  the  things  in  their 
possession.  Bluejackets  as  police  and  missionaries  as  inter- 
preters have  charge  of  the  proceedings,  and  the  accumulated 
piles  of  loot  carted  from  time  to  time  to  the  police  station  till 
further  orders,  bear  witness  to  their  industry."  "This  burn- 
ing of  the  city  is  the  work  of  devils,  not  men.  .  .  .  The  people, 
at  least  thousands,  had  stayed  believing  it  would  be  all  right." 

"Loot  is  being  taken  out  of  the  City  by  gangs,"  says  an- 
other. "Cash-shops  and  pawn-shops  are  those  most  raided. 
.  .  .  All  night  through  the  City  has  been  one  red  glare.  The 
light  has  lighted  up  Wuchang  so  that  houses  could  all  clearly 
be  seen.  It  is  a  terrible  sight,  but  oh !  the  poor  people.  The 
well-to-do  merchants  and  their  families  fleeing  from  the  burn- 
ing City  and  nowhere  to  flee.  They  sit  down  in  the  road  and 
just  burst  out  crying.  It  is  all  too  horrible  for  words.  'Where 
can  we  go?'  they  ask,  and  we  have  nowhere  to  suggest." 


Part  II 

After  the  "battle  of  Kilometre  10"  the  roll  of  dead  and 
wounded  showed  that  no  real  fighting  took  place.  The  Impe- 
rialists had  only  been  trying  to  draw  the  Revolutionists  away 
from  the  Foreign  Concessions  and  on  to  ground  where  the 
warships  could  shell  them.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Revolu- 
tionists had  been  staying  under  shelter  of  the  Foreign  Con- 
cessions and  of  their  own  guns  in  Hanyang.  Perhaps  they 
felt  their  military  weakness  and  were  discouraged  by  their 
first  attempts.  In  any  case,  they  appealed  to  strategy.  After 

120 


HANKOW— A   BATTLE 

seeing  the  attempts  of  General  Chang  Piao  and  Admiral  Sah 
to  draw  them  into  ambush,  they  tried  to  win  over  Admiral  Sah. 
The  student  revolutionaries  of  the  three  cities  addressed  a 
letter  to  him  which  concluded  with  the  appeal:  "Therefore, 
Admiral,  we  appeal  to  your  generous  sympathy  and  wisdom, 
and  plead  for  the  safety  and  welfare  of  400,000,000  souls  and 
for  the  free  growth  and  development  of  the  Chinese,  who,  if 
allowed  to  be  free,  are  bound  to  make  a  wonderful  contribu- 
tion that  will  go  to  enrich  the  civilisation  of  the  whole  world. 
If  you  would  disarm  your  gunboats  and  cruisers  and  steam 
up  to  Hankow,  all  the  people  in  these  three  cities  will  be  en- 
raptured to  welcome  you  with  wild  enthusiasm  and  intense 
honour." 

The  cause  of  the  rebellion  was  to  be  successful  through 
persuasion.  It  made  its  own  way,  led  by  the  persuasion  of 
its  leader,  General  Li  Yuan-hung.  He  had  already  addressed 
one  letter  to  the  Imperialist  Admiral  Sah,  and  on  the  eve  of 
the  battle  of  Hankow  he  sent  him  another,  in  which  he  said : 

"My  DEAR  MASTER, — My  last  letter  must  have  reached 
Your  Excellency.  But  having  received  no  order  from  you, 
my  mind  is  much  perturbed  and  ill  at  ease.  The  reason  why 
I  come  out  this  time  as  leader  of  the  men  is  owing  to  force 
majeure;  and  I  would  respectfully  beg  to  explain  it  more  fully 
to  you.  At  the  time  when  the  Wuchang  rising  broke  out,  all 
the  troops  under  my  command  were  away,  leaving  me  in  an 
empty  camp  absolutely  without  means  of  defence.  When  the 
Revolutionary  army  had  driven  Jui  Cheng  out  of  the  city,  it 
came  to  my  camp,  surrounded  it  and  made  a  search.  I,  hav- 
ing dressed  myself  in  civilian  clothes,  hid  myself  in  a  rear 
room,  from  which  I  was  discovered  and  captured,  and  repri- 
manded for  want  of  patriotism.  All  around  me  were  pistols 
and  guns,  my  head  and  body  would  certainly  have  parted  com- 
pany upon  the  least  attempt  at  resistance  on  my  part;  there- 
fore I  had  to  consent  to  their  demand  as  a  means  of  policy. 
You,  my  Master,  must  know  all  along  that  I  am  always  very 
careful,  and  must  have  wondered  greatly  that  I  could  have 
behaved  thus  in  an  emergency.  Although  attending  business 

121 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

for  several  days,  I  dared  not  lightly  move,  because  I  did  not 
know  the  true  sentiments,  the  strength  of  unison,  and  the 
chances  of  success  of  my  compatriots.  Should  I  lightly  make 
a  rash  move,  it  might  entail  disastrous  results  which  would 
throw  us  into  a  state  of  chaos,  and  not  only  we  would 
be  unable  to  redeem  the  humiliation  of  the  Han  clans,  but 
would  augment  their  peril  and  danger.  Now,  having  com- 
manded the  army  for  eight  days,  I  find  that  all  of  us  are 
one-minded,  imbued  with  the  same  enmity  and  hatred  towards 
our  common  foe. 

"In  old  times  Wu  Wang  said:  'Ch'ou  has  millions  of 
servants,  but  they  possess  millions  of  minds ;  I  have  3,000 
servants,  but  of  one  mind.'  Now  of  one  mind,  we  have  more 
than  thirty  thousand ;  and  still,  scholars  from  all  the  provinces, 
mostly  having  studied  in  special  schools  in  Japan  and  Western 
countries,  members  of  the  gentry  of  the  purest  blood  for  gen- 
erations, with  useful  knowledge  and  rich  experiences,  as  well 
as  officials,  the  gentry  and  others  of  this  province,  are  joining 
us  continually. 

"Therefore  when  we  opened  diplomatic  relations  for  the 
first  time  the  Powers  have  admitted  us  as  one  of  the  belliger- 
ents, and  declared  their  neutrality.  The  Revolutionary  army 
has,  on  the  other  hand,  been  careful  not  to  injure  the  foreign- 
ers or  the  effects  and  property  of  any  private  individual.  This 
is  not  only  new  in  Chinese  history,  but  also  seldom  attained 
in  civilisation  by  revolutionaries  of  any  Power. 

"We  may  conclude  that  the  fortunes  of  the  Ching  nation 
must  be  on  the  wane,  and  she  must  be  incapable  of  employing 
the  worthy  and  the  brave,  to  cause  such  an  influx  to  our 
standard  of  clever,  accomplished,  and  wise  men  from  all  four 
quarters.  Could  this  possibly  be  attributed  to  my  influence 
alone?  Take  the  battle  of  yesterday,  for  instance :  the  soldiers 
fought  individually  and  rushed  forward  bravely  even  without 
urging;  our  brother  Chinese  who  helped  us  to  fight  bare- 
handed, and  to  destroy  rails,  were  innumerable;  and  even 
women  and  children  came  upon  the  scene  with  bread  and  tea 
as  presents.  Such  pathetic  scenes  will  incite  heroism  by  a 
mere  recounting  of  them.  Who  have  no  liver  and  gall?  [i.e. 

122 


HANKOW— A   BATTLE 

Who  are  without  courage?].  Who  have  no  warm  earnest- 
ness? Who  are  not  the  offspring  of  Huang  Ti  [Yellow  Em- 
peror] ?  Could  they  be  willing  to  remain  slaves  of  the  Man- 
chus  and  to  injure  their  brothers?  I,  being  aware  of  all  this 
and  confident  in  the  great  possibility  of  future  prospects,  have 
sworn  and  declared  with  our  army  to  recover  the  Han  [Chi- 
nese] territory,  to  abrogate  the  oligarchic  form  of  govern- 
ment, to  establish  a  Chinese  republic,  and  to  maintain  the 
peace  of  the  world. 

"Therefore,  in  these  few  days,  we  have  explicitly  notified 
all  the  Powers  and  extensively  informed  our  brothers,  in 
all  the  provinces,  each  of  which  we  advise  to  declare  independ- 
ence by  itself,  in  preparation  for  an  ultimate  amalgamation, 
and  for  the  holding  of  a  public  election  of  a  President  to 
govern  us  at  a  place  to  be  then  fixed.  The  glad  voice  of  our 
brothers  in  welcoming  this  declaration  has  been  so  hearty  and 
strong  as  to  vibrate  the  heaven  and  the  earth.  So,  in  a  single 
battle,  several  hundreds  of  our  enemies  were  slain.  Now, 
since  the  resuscitation  of  Han  or  the  destruction  of  Man  has 
long  been  foreshadowed,  it  can  be  understood  by  everyone,  not 
by  the  wise  alone.  It  is  due  solely  to  the  teachings  of  you,  my 
dear  Master,  that  I  myself  can  divine  the  delicate  feelings 
of  patriots. 

"The  rising  of  Wuchang  this  time,  as  I  have  ascertained 
and  can  assure  you,  is  a  genuine  outburst  and  not  comparable 
to  any  other  revolutionary  movement.  Within  a  few  hours' 
time,  we  were  fortunate  enough  to  regain  possession  of  the 
three  towns  of  Wu-Han  [Wuchang,  Hanyang,  and  Hankow], 
in  which  there  are  arsenal  and  armouries,  iron-works,  cotton 
weaving  and  spinning  mills,  linen  factories  and  silk  filatures. 
They  are  the  centre  of  the  whole  nation,  commercially  and 
politically ;  and  as  this  is  an  epoch  of  communication,  the  capi- 
tal of  a  nation  should  be  established  here,  in  order  to  be  able 
to  vie  with  either  London,  Berlin,  Paris,  St.  Petersburg,  or 
Washington. 

"It  is  reported  that  in  the  Autumn  Manoeuvres  the  Man 
and  the  Han  soldiers  have  quarrelled  and  fought  with  each 
other.  If  this  be  true,  then  Heaven  has  ordained  it  so;  how 

123 


could  human  contrivance  avail  anything?  Yuan-hung  [him- 
self] has  received  instructions  from  Your  Excellency,  but  is 
deficient  in  learning  and  knowledge,  and  cannot  bear  such 
heavy  responsibility;  he  has  already  informed  his  compatriots 
that  he  is  going  to  invite  his  Master  to  take  up  the  duties 
which  they  demand  from  him ;  he  will  even  come  on  board  his 
Master's  cruiser  to  beg  of  him  to  accept. 

"The  ancient  people  once  spoke  of  Hsia  An  thus :  'If  that 
man  did  not  come  forth,  how  would  human  lives  fare?'  Now 
the  brothers  exclaim  in  myriads  of  voices  but  in  one  breath, 
my  Teacher  does  not  come  forth,  [therefore]  how  will  the 
lives  of  our  400,000,000  brothers  fare? 

"Judging  by  the  present  aspect  of  affairs,  if  my  Teacher 
will  only  consent  to  come  forth  and  save  the  400,000,000  of 
our  brothers,  hills  and  dales  will  at  once  change  colour  at 
the  approach  of  our  patriotic  flag.  With  400,000,000  to  con- 
tend with  several  thousands  of  Manchu  clans;  with  the  citi- 
zens of  a  Republic  just  budding  forth  to  confront  with  the 
Ching  Dynasty  nearing  the  end  of  its  course ;  I  say,  though 
Washington  spent  eight  years  in  waging  bloody  battles  to 
renovate  America,  my  Master,  if  he  will  only  come  forth,  can 
contemplate  in  barely  eight  months  the  flying  of  the  Chinese 
republican  flag  on  the  map  of  Asia. 

"The  master  best  knows  his  disciple,  so  the  disciple  best 
knows  his  master.  Though  Yuan-hung  is  unworthy,  he  will 
not  be  the  slave  of  the  bannerman;  but  that  does  not  prevent 
him  from  being  the  disciple  of  a  great  mind. 

"Tang  and  Wu  [two  feudal  lords  or  princes  who  flour- 
ished during  the  reigns  of  King  Chih  and  King  Ch'ou  respec- 
tively] having  saved  the  people,  both  became  themselves  their 
Kings.  My  Master  will  certainly  not  let  Washington  monopo- 
lize the  good  name  alone  for  saving  his  people.  I  am  not 
praying  my  Teacher  with  selfish  motives  for  the  salvation  of 
the  lives  of  our  400,000,000  brothers.  The  living  or  dying  of 
either  Man  or  Han  depends  upon  the  single  body  of  my 
Teacher  alone.  Prince  Chi's  example  may  be  well  worth  emu- 
lating, as  I  have  thought  of  it  again  and  again.  Otherwise, 
all  our  brothers  would  regard  you  as  a  person  opposing  their 

124 


HANKOW— A    BATTLE 

sentiments,  and  would  treat  you  as  a  Manchu  slave,  then  even 
Yuan-hung  will  not  be  able  to  forbid  them  to  strike  the 
blow. 

"Should  you  not  think  me  in  the  wrong,  I  hope  you  will 
issue  instructions  which  I  shall  obey  by  leading  the  brothers 
of  our  Han  clans  to  the  outskirts  of  the  City  to  welcome  the 
coming  Hero." 

Admiral  Sah  thereupon  had  nothing  to  say  respecting  Gen- 
eral Li's  letter  except  that  he  was  under  the  orders  of  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  Viceroy  of  Hunan  and  Hupeh 
[the  Hukuang  provinces]  and  had  command  of  all  military 
in  that  region.  Li  Yuan-hung's  "motley"  soldiers  were  again 
attacking  between  Seven  Mile  Creek  and  Kilometre  10,  and 
October  27  Admiral  Sah  again  turned  his  guns  on  the  Revolu- 
tionist advance  from  Hankow.  Admiral  Sah  then  had  a  per- 
sonal reply  for  General  Li,  which  he  spoke  of  to  the  foreign 
consuls.  He  notified  them  that  on  the  following  day,  October 
28,  at  3  P.M.,  he  would  bombard  Wuchang,  the  rebel  com- 
mander's capital  and  headquarters.  He  kept  the  appointment, 
shelling  Wuchang  for  fifty-eight  minutes.  Thus  the  "master" 
to  his  "pupil." 

General  Li  had  ready  a  counter  reply  to  his  "teacher"  Ad- 
miral Sah.  When  Admiral  Sah  notified  the  Allies,  represented 
by  the  foreign  consuls  at  Hankow,  that  he  would  shell  the 
Revolutionists'  capital,  General  Li  notified  them  that  he  had 
been  proclaimed  "President  of  the  Republic  of  China:"  He 
had  received  reports  from  other  provinces  showing  that  the 
cause  was  moving  on  without  help  of  military  conquest — it 
was  fighting  its  way  on  moral  lines.  "The  Anhuei  provincial 
troops  are  mutinous  and  proceeding  to  join  him."  "The  Im- 
perialist gunboat  crews  are  mutinous  and  are  turning  to  the 
Republican  side;  representatives  are  sent  from  Wuchang  to 
explain  the  present  movement  to  the  crews."  "All  the  gun- 
boats are  short  of  coal  and  the  sailors  are  deserting.  The  rest 
are  threatening  death  to  their  officers  if  they  do  not  get  their 
pay." 

Hunan  Province  adjoining  on  the  south  "declared  its  in- 

125 


dependence"  at  Changsha,  the  Governor  joining  in,  and  the 
Military  Administration  there  telegraphed  Li  Yuan-hung  "it 
is  one  with  him  in  raising  the  Hans  and  exterminating  the 
Manchus."  It  asks  for  rifles,  ammunition,  some  money,  but 
will  send  rice  and  charcoal  in  return.  The  new  order  has 
given  assurance  to  the  people  in  Hankow,  where  foreigners  are 
impressed  with  the  republican  idea,  especially  its  scrupulous 
regard  for  foreigners  and  for  the  common  soldier.  "An  offi- 
cer from  Wuchang  comes  to  the  hospitals  [foreign]  in  Han- 
kow each  day  to  inquire  about  the  welfare  of  the  men  wounded 
in  the  recent  fighting."  "Consideration  for  ordinary  soldiers 
is  a  kind  of  new  thing  among  the  Chinese,"  says  the  foreign 
Press. 

The  proclamation  of  a  President  in  China  awakened  cu- 
riosity as  to  this  Wuchang  and  its  gathering  of  conspirators. 
Out  of  the  revolutionary  recruits,  delegates,  soldiers  of  for- 
tune, conspirators,  flocking  to  it,  was  constructed  a  council  or 
"senate,"  whose  members  stood  for  ten  other  provinces  beside 
Hupeh,  the  mother  province  of  revolution.  Fukien,  Shensi, 
and  Kiangsi  provinces  revolted,  General  Feng  Shan  was  as- 
sassinated at  Canton,  and  Canton  Revolutionists  asserted 
Canton's  readiness  to  join  the  cause.  The  Republic  was  some- 
thing that  could  be  grasped  in  the  hand.  Claiming  credentials 
from  the  "military  governments"  of  eleven  provinces,  the 
"senate"  of  Wuchang,  October  28,  1911,  "elected"  Li  Yuan- 
hung  President. 


CHAPTER  XII 
FOREIGN   CONCESSIONS   UNDER  FIRE 

THEY  are  all  coming  on  to  the  Foreign  Concessions,  also 
a  great  swarm  of  bad  characters.     A  shell  burst  on 
the  warehouse-roof  alongside  our  kitchen — the  noise 
was  terrific." 

Hankow  is  the  only  place  in  China  where  foreigners  have 
been  caught  between  the  lines  of  contending  Chinese  armies. 
The  children  and  most  of  the  women  have  been  sent  away 
to  Shanghai,  but  the  men  remain  and  have  formed  a  volunteer 
corps  to  guard  property. 

October  u,  when  the  Viceroy  Jui  Cheng  warned  them 
he  could  give  no  protection  in  case  of  attack,  they  were  on 
patrol  at  six  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  thenceforth  co-oper- 
ated with  the  defence  forces  of  marines  landed  from  the  for- 
eign warships  anchored  in  the  river. 

The  foreigners  are  confined  to  five  Concessions,  British, 
Russian,  French,  German,  and  Japanese,  extending  along  the 
Yangtse  River  from  the  east  end  of  Hankow  native  city.  The 
Concessions  are  neutral  ground,  which  only  refugees  and 
wounded  may  enter,  and  to  which  foreign  missionaries,  teach- 
ers, and  others  from  outlying  stations  in  Wuchang,  Hanyang, 
Hankow,  and  elsewhere  have  repaired.  From  the  first,  when 
the  bomb  exploded  in  the  Russian  Concession,  ushering  in  the 
Republic,  the  colony  has  played  a  spectacular  part  in  the 
drama  of  the  "Republic."  With  the  river  on  one  side  pa- 
trolled by  war-vessels  and  the  railway  from  Peking  forming 
a  highway  for  the  military  on  the  other  parallel  with  its  west 
wall,  with  Hankow  at  its  south  end  possessed  by  the  Revolu- 
tionists, and  the  camp  of  the  Imperialists  on  the  north,  it  has 
been  completely  surrounded  by  the  military  of  the  two  con- 
tending sides. 

October  u,  foreign  warships  in  the  Yangtse  River  are 
starting  for  the  scene.  The  Japanese  Admiral  Kawashima, 

127 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

in  the  flagship  Tsushima,  is  among  the  first  to  arrive,  and 
being  the  ranking  officer,  the  foreign  consuls  and  naval  and 
volunteer  commanders  join  in  requesting  him  to  take  com- 
mand. He  gives  orders  to  place  the  Concessions  in  a  state  of 
defence,  and  asks  the  Chinese  war-vessels  in  the  river  to  con- 
fine their  fire  to  waters  away  from  the  Concessions — a  request 
which  they  comply  with  by  retiring  farther  down  stream. 

October  13,  four  British,  two  American,  two  German,  and 
one  Japanese  war-vessels  are  at  the  Hankow  Concessions, 
and  the  merchant-steamer  Han-ping  has  started  with  the  for- 
eign women  and  children  for  Shanghai.  An  additional  Ameri- 
can gunboat  arrives  October  14.  October  16  the  last  foreign- 
ers from  Wuchang  retire  to  the  Concessions.  Two  German 
and  one  British  war- vessels  arrive  October  17,  and  a  German 
torpedo-boat  October  18.  October  20,  one  German  and  one 
British  war-vessels  arrive,  and  the  foreign  colony  has  alto- 
gether 22  warships  for  its  protection.  They  are  trying  to 
keep  commerce  open. 

The  consuls  and  foreign  refugees  note  that  from  time  to 
time  the  hongs  [business  houses]  are  doing  some  "merchandis- 
ing." At  the  end  of  October  the  surgeon  of  the  British  gun- 
boat Nightingale  is  treating  the  wounded  of  Admiral  Sah,  the 
Imperialist  naval  commander,  who  has  been  bombarding  Wu- 
chang, while  receiving  some  well-directed  rebel  shells  on  his 
decks.  The  surgeons  and  physicians  ashore  have  been  keeping 
open  the  foreign  hospital  at  Hankow,  where  bullets  have  been 
flying  since  October  18. 

The  bluejackets,  or  marines,  are  guarding  the  boundaries 
of  the  Concessions,  especially  at  the  back,  where  the  land 
fighting  is  going  on,  and  have  stopped  an  inundation  by  the 
belligerents.  A  Red  Cross  department  has  been  organized 
under  the  American  Dr.  Wylie  and  is  running  a  Red  Cross 
refuge  at  the  Wesleyan  Mission  in  Hankow,  where,  November 
i,  it  has  150  wounded  under  its  care.  There  is  also  a  British 
hospital,  a  German  hospital,  and,  at  St.  Paul's  Cathedral, 
a  Roman  Catholic  hospital. 

The  foreign  doctor  in  charge  of  the  hospital  at  the  Wes- 
leyan Mission  is  spending  his  nights  in  the  Concession  and  his 

128 


FOREIGN    CONCESSIONS    UNDER    FIRE 

days  in  the  Hospital.  When  Hankow  is  fired  he  is  in  the 
Concession  with  others,  but  at  dawn  a  relief  party  of  a  dozen 
or  more  doctors,  volunteers,  and  missionaries  board  a  Red 
Cross  launch  on  the  bank  of  the  Yangtse  and  try  to  reach 
the  Hospital  by  water.  Entering  the  Han  River,  they  find  the 
Hanyang  side  swarming  with  Revolutionists.  Their  boat  is 
soon  stopped  and  refused  permission  to  proceed.  Bullets  are 
whistling,  and  the  relief  party  can  hear  a  rapid-fire  gun  in 
action  in  the  neighbourhood,  which  is  enveloped  in  smoke. 
The  Hospital,  as  well  as  a  school  of  blind  boys  under  mission- 
ary care,  lying  almost  in  the  direction  of  fire,  are  cut  off. 
• .  The  Revolutionists  are  vacating  Hankow  for  Hanyang, 
and  the  foreigners  are  waiting  to  see  if  the  north  and  south 
ends  of  the  City  are  to  be  burnt,  as  the  centre  has  been. 

November  3,  the  now  invested  foreign  community  having 
witnessed  the  horrors  of  sacking  and  destruction  in  Hankow, 
takes  a  thoroughly  serious  view  of  the  situation.  Someone 
naively  suggests  that  the  belligerents  remove  themselves  and 
fight  out  their  quarrel  from  a  safe  distance.  Acrimonious 
criticism  is  made  of  those  foreigners  who  are  charged  with 
excessive  sympathy  with  the  revolutionaries,  which  is  believed 
by  some  to  be  dangerous  to  the  future  situation  of  foreigners. 
Now  come  the  phenomena  that  are  the  obvious  result  of  mis- 
cellaneous foreigners  of  incompatible  ideas  and  temperaments 
assembled  in  close  quarters  under  abnormal  conditions,  recall- 
ing the  clashing  of  temperaments  during  the  siege  of  the  Lega- 
tions, Peking,  in  1900.  They  are  the  clash  of  individual  idio- 
syncrasies, national  prejudices,  the  civilian  protest  against  the 
conditions  to  which  they  are  subjected  by  the  military,  and 
the  old  antipathy  between  the  missionary  and  lay  elements. 

The  community  is  now  cut  off  from  telegraphic  communi- 
cation and  knows  next  to  nothing  of  the  outside  world.  Its 
Red  Cross  flag  has  been  fired  on  both  by  the  Imperialists  and 
the  Revolutionists.  These  incidents  have  an  interesting  effect 
in  pointing  out  that  the  Red  Cross  flag  is  the  Concessions'  flag, 
the  flag  of  all  nationalities,  and  inspires  in  the  otherwise  in- 
compatible elements  composing  the  community  the  spirit  of 
loyalty  to  each  other. 

129 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

"The  fighting  throughout  has  been  of  the  most  terrible 
character,"  one  of  the  besieged  writes.  "No  prisoners  taken 
on  either  side,  the  wounded  are  frequently  killed  where  they 
lay,  and  suspicious  persons  arrested  and  on  failing  to  give  ac- 
count of  themselves  are  immediately  beheaded."  The  Red 
Cross  volunteers  working  in  the  doomed  native  city  bring 
out  reports  of  looting  and  rape  and  say  that  it  does  not  look 
safe  for  foreigners  now.  One  of  the  Chinese  Red  Cross 
workers  is  seriously  wounded  by  a  rifle  bullet.  Missiles  are 
entering  the  Concessions.  A  shell  lands  in  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic compound,  British  Concession,  pierces  a  tree  and  explodes 
with  a  terrific  report,  bespattering  the  wall  of  the  house  with 
fragments.  A  large  piece  of  the  shell  enters  a  bedroom  shut- 
ter, crosses  under  the  bed  of  one  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Fathers  who  is  sleeping,  strikes  the  farther  wall  and  rebounds 
into  the  middle  of  the  room.  A  Chinese  is  wounded  in  front 
of  the  hong  of  Jardine,  Matheson,  and  Company.  The  godown 
of  the  Nippon  Kisen  Kaisha  has  burned  at  a  loss  of  half  a 
million  taels.  An  idea  of  the  events  taking  place  on  the  con- 
fines of^he  Concessions  is  afforded  by  the  stories  brought  in 
by  scouting  parties  from  the  Concessions. 

The  energy  displayed  by  the  Chinese  coming  out  of  the 
native  city  with  loot  contradicts  any  imputation  of  laziness. 
Coolies  otherwise  thin  from  starvation  arrive  wearing  silks 
and  looking  as  robust  from  the  multiplication  of  fine  garments 
on  their  backs  as  though  they  have  always  been  wealthy  com- 
pradores.  "Beggars  parade  the  streets  in  silk  gowns  while 
forgetting  to  change  their  tattered  shoes,"  says  a  reporter  for 
the  Central  China  Post. 

At  the  pawn-shops  guarded  by  Imperialist  soldiers  the 
looters  hustle  each  other  to  gain  an  entrance,  or  busy  them- 
selves with  purloining  from  those  who  are  coming  out.  "Here 
comes  the  officer !"  shouts  a  boy,  and  the  soldiers  fire  a  volley 
into  the  roof  of  the  building  opposite.  Up  comes  an  officer, 
compliments  the  soldiers  on  the  manner  in  which  they  are  keep- 
ing back  the  looters,  and  passes  on.  The  place  again  swarms 
with  them. 

At  the  entrances  to  the  Concessions  the  piles  of  loot  com- 


mandeered  by  the  Concessions'  police  steadily  grow.  Cotton, 
silks,  furs,  lie  "in  a  glorious  heap,"  continues  the  Post,  "with 
colours  so  dazzling  as  to  render  Joseph's  coat  a  garb  of  sombre 
hue."  There  is  every  article  of  dress,  from  the  blue  cotton  of 
the  peasant  to  the  embroidered  theatrical  costume  of  silk  and 
cloth  of  gold. 

One  looter  using  a  plausible  story  to  the  effect  that  he  is 
the  owner  of  a  shop  is  allowed  to  make  way  with  three  cart- 
loads of  its  goods.  Half  an  hour  later  he  repasses  the  spot 
with  four  empty  carts  en  route  into  the  City.  This  time  when 
he  returns  he  has  become  the  owner  of  five  shops  and  deals  in 
"everything  from  tobacco  to  tiger  skins,"  and  the  police  think 
it  time  to  gather  him  in  and  confiscate  his  levies.  One  looter 
appears  at  the  Concessions  with  two  cases  of  hog  bristles — a 
common  article  of  export  in  China — for  an  outgoing  steamer. 
Examined,  they  are  found  to  contain  silks  and  other  plundered 
valuables.  Looters  appear  with  their  clothes  stuffed  with  valu- 
ables, and  the  Concessions'  police  amuse  themselves  by  shak- 
ing bolts  of  silk,  rolls  of  velvet,  carvings,  or  fine  clocks  out 
of  their  captives. 

Outside  the  Concessions  the  Chinese  are  not  always  so 
considerate  of  looters  as  the  Concession  police.  Three  looters 
caught  by  the  Imperial  soldiers  at  the  railway  station  are 
made  to  put  on  clothes  they  have  stolen  and  are  then  shot. 
Others  captured  in  the  evening  are  tied  to  telegraph-poles  to 
await  the  arrival  of  the  executioner.  A  supposed  spy,  cap- 
tured in  the  Imperial  camp,  is  hung  up  for  the  soldiers  to  dig 
their  bayonets  into,  and  then  stoned  to  death. 

General  Feng  Kuo-chang  is  the  Imperialist  Commander 
directing  his  force  from  Kilometre  10.  General  Huang  Hsing, 
a  noted  conspirator  and  revolutionist  arrived  at  Wuchang  No- 
vember 5,  is  made  Chief  Commander  under  President  Gen- 
eral Li  Yuan-hung,  later  to  become  famous  in  the  Republic. 
His  soldiers  with  their  outposts  in  Hankow  are  virtually  de- 
fending the  river  bank  of  the  Han.  The  artillery  fight  is  be- 
tween Tortoise  Hill  in  Hanyang  and  the  Race  Course  back 
of  the  Concessions. 

The  whole  life  of  the  foreigners  in  the  Concessions  has 


THE    FLOWERY   REPUBLIC 

now  become  one  of  activities  for  relief  of  native  distress  sur- 
rounding them.  They  have  called  for  outside  aid,  and  their 
appeals  have  been  answered  by  appropriations  of  money  from 
Shanghai.  The  most  interesting  event  of  the  6th  is  the  strik- 
ing of  the  post  office  by  a  shell  which  penetrates  two  thick  walls 
and  lodges  in  a  third  but  does  not  explode.  The  native  postal 
staff,  however,  is  not  deterred  by  this  from  returning  to  its 
work  of  sorting  2,000,000  native  letters  that  have  accumulated 
during  the  panic. 

The  volunteers  of  the  British  Concession  have  found  their 
work  "no  sinecure";  they  bear  the  brunt  of  the  pressure  of 
the  Chinese  refugees  on  account  of  their  Concession  joining 
the  native  city.  They  are  relieved  from  time  to  time  by 
the  German  and  French  volunteers.  "They  have  been  doing 
splendidly,"  paternally  remarks  the  appreciative  editor  of  the 
Central  China  Post. 

November  7,  the  event  of  the  day  is  the  visit  of  the  wife 
of  President  General  Li  Yuan-hung  to  the  Red  Cross  hos- 
pitals, where  she  presents  the  wounded,  Revolutionists  and 
Imperialists  alike,  each  with  flowers,  two  oranges,  and  two 
dollars  in  money  (silver),  and  speaks  a  few  kind  words. 
"One  Northern  soldier  protested  that  he  could  not  receive 
the  gift,  as  he  had  fought  for  the  other  side.  He  was  re- 
minded that  all  were  brethren,  and  he  accepted  the  presents 
saying,  'This  kindness  makes  my  heart  feel  very  uncom- 
fortable.' " 

While  President  General  Li  Yuan-hung  remains  stead- 
fastly in  Wuchang  awaiting  the  arrival  of  Huang  Hsing,  to 
make  him  a  General,  and  to  confer  upon  him  the  military 
chieftainship  highest  under  the  President,  his  soldiers  in  Han- 
kow and  Hanyang  have  been  fighting  without  qualified  leaders. 
He  has  still  before  him  the  problem  of  provisioning  his  army, 
but  supplies  of  all  kinds  are  coming  in.  At  last  there  is  corn 
in  Egypt,  and  President  General  Li  Yuan-hung  is  able  to  send 
rice  to  the  extent  of  1,600  piculs  and  $10,000  (silver) 
to  the  Red  Cross  Society  for  use  in  the  hospitals  of  Han- 
kow, and  to  sell  to  the  foreign  community.  He  is  not  in 
danger  of  being  starved  out  of  his  capital,  but  the  defeat  be- 

I-2 


FOREIGN    CONCESSIONS    UNDER    FIRE 

fore  Hankow,  accompanied  by  the  loss  of  30  guns,  has 
weakened  his  defences. 

Boatloads  of  reinforcements  from  Hunan  are  arriving. 
They  come  from  Changsha  in  steam  launches  and  junks.  For 
a  mile  and  a  half  down  the  river  from  the  Foreign  Conces- 
sions at  Hankow  the  Imperialists  have  placed  batteries  at 
short  intervals,  to  command  the  river.  President  General  Li 
Yuan-hung  is  erecting  batteries  at  Wuchang,  in  which  he  is 
mounting  antiquated  smooth-bore,  muzzle-loading  cannon. 
Some  of  his  cannon  that  have  been  firing  into  Hankow  and 
occasionally  dropping  a  shell  into  the  Concessions  are  using 
black  powder  which  his  reopened  powder  mills  have  been 
turning  out  since  the  middle  of  October. 

In  his  letter  to  Admiral  Sah,  General  Li  Yuan-hung  said 
that  the  Republic  advised  the  provinces  each  to  declare  inde- 
pendence by  itself.  Amalgamation  was  to  be  arrived  at  in 
the  future.  According  to  this,  the  object  aimed  at  was  not 
so  much  the  defeat  of  the  military  forces  of  the  Throne  as 
the  cutting  off  of  its  resources.  When,  therefore,  upon  the 
fall  of  Hankow  the  Imperialist  soldiers  appeared  at  the  water's 
edge  opposite  him,  he  invited  them  to  surrender  to  the  Re- 
publican side  in  a  proclamation  from  "the  General  of  the 
Hupeh  army  to  the  Northern  soldiers" : 

"(i)  First  several  boats  are  moored  in  the  river  at  the 
place  of  reception. 

"(2)  Brothers  in  the  Northern  army  who  sympathise  with 
our  sentiments  are  requested  to  come  to  the  bank  of  the  river 
and  raise  their  hands  by  way  of  signal,  whereupon  small  craft 
will  immediately  appear  to  welcome  them. 

"(3)  Whoever  wishes  to  surrender  must  throw  away  his 
arms. 

"(4)  Brothers  of  the  Northern  army  who  have  surren- 
dered will  be  accommodated  in  specially  engaged  buildings, 
with  their  meals  supplied;  and  when  matters  are  settled  they 
will  be  employed  according  to  their  respective  merits. 

"(5)  If  anyone  wishes  to  return  home,  his  passage  ex- 
penses will  be  paid  to  him. 

133 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

"Emperor  Huang,  46o9th  year,  ninth  moon,  i6tH  day 
(Nov.  6,  1911)." 

In  this  proclamation  no  mention  is  made  of  the  advanced 
pay  of  $50  (silver)  hitherto  offered  deserters,  indicating  that 
Imperialist  troops  are  deserting  for  causes  which  make  it  un- 
necessary to  offer  special  inducements.  In  the  Tungting  Road 
in  the  Foreign  Concessions  at  Hankow  a  deserting  Imperialist 
soldier  fleeing  for  his  life  has  found  sanctuary  and  is  throw- 
ing off  his  regimental  clothes.  Imperialist  officers  come  to  the 
Concessions  in  search  of  red  cloth  for  bands  to  wear  as  a  sign 
that  they  would  not  fight  the  revolutionaries,  obviously  in- 
tended to  be  used  as  a  sign  of  surrender  and  to  enable  them 
to  pass  over  to  the  Revolutionist  lines  at  a  convenient  oppor- 
tunity. 

President  General  Li  Yuan-hung  prepares  an  inn  and 
other  houses  at  Wuchang  in  which  to  welcome  deserters.  An 
engine-driver  from  the  Peking-Hankow  Railway  escaped  from 
Hsaio-kan  and  arrived  there  says  the  Northern  soldiers  are 
very  ignorant  about  trains,  insisting  on  travelling  when  they 
have  neither  coal  nor  water  and  not  allowing  trainmen  to 
replenish.  They  tied  him  on  to  the  engine,  from  which  he 
managed  to  make  his  escape.  "They  are  always  telegraphing 
to  the  North  asking  for  more  money  or  more  food,"  said  he. 

Forty  officials  offering  their  services  at  the  reception  build- 
ing provided  by  the  President  are  given  offices.  Several  hun- 
dred "dare  to  die"  men  have  come  forward,  and  "in  all  over 
2,000  men  have  offered  their  services." 

Troops  are  so  numerous  as  to  elicit  the  observation  from 
foreign  spectators  that  the  killing  of  a  Republican  immediately 
raises  up  more  to  take  his  place.  The  idea  has  been  embodied 
in  a  cartoon  elsewhere  in  the  Republic  showing  the  death  of 
the  Revolutionary  to  be  the  immortality  of  the  Revolution. 
The  troops  all  appear  queueless,  and  the  Republican  news- 
papers say  that  President  General  Li  Yuan-hung  has  issued 
orders  that  all  who  enter  or  leave  the  City  must  have  their 
queues  cut  and  that  there  is  a  band  of  students  in  the  City 
who  go  about  with  sharp  knives  cutting  off  queues  whether 

134 


Imperialist  Headquarters  at  Camp  Sin-yang-chow,  Camp  of  General  Yin  Chan« 

Early  morning 


Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  Headquarters.    Imperialist  Camp  at  Hsiao-chia-chiang 


Artillery  Leaving  Hsiao-chia-chiang  for  the  Front  at  Hankow. 
MOBILIZING  THE  IMPERIALIST  ARMY 


FOREIGN    CONCESSIONS    UNDER    FIRE 

the  possessor  of  the  queues  are  willing  or  not.  Once  shaven, 
the  queueless  head  quickly  finds  its  way  to  a  foreign  hat  or 
cap. 

The  troops  sent  from  Hunan  on  launches  and  junks  are 
numerous  and  conspicuous  because  of  the  turbans  they  wear 
and  their  training  and  discipline.  They  have  been  divided  be- 
tween the  Capital  and  the  sister-city  of  Hanyang.  Huang 
Hsing,  Chief  of  Military  under  President  General  Li  Yuan- 
hung,  on  the  day  of  his  arrival  is  seen  riding  through  Wu- 
chang at  the  head  of  an  escort  of  20  soldiers.  "His  outward 
appearance,"  writes  a  spectator,  "is  not  particularly  attrac- 
tive. He  was  in  uniform,  riding  on  an  old-fashioned  wooden 
saddle,  with  coloured  glasses  over  his  eyes,  and  a  big 
cigar  in  his  mouth."  His  arrival  has  already  heartened  the 
troops. 

On  the  nights  of  November  5  and  November  7  detach- 
ments of  revolutionaries  from  Hanyang  went  through  the  al- 
most ruined  city  of  Hankow  in  search  of  Imperialists  whom 
they  might  find  looting  or  hiding  there.  The  first  night  they 
captured  more  than  a  hundred,  who  were  brought  to  Wuchang 
and  deprived  of  their  arms.  They  left  numbers  killed  in  the 
streets  and  lanes.  November  6,  they  beheaded  many  looters, 
tying  the  heads  to  poles  upon  which  was  also  hung  the  loot 
of  the  victim. 

Outside  the  walls  of  the  Republican  capital  there  is  no 
evidence  of  the  unusual  except  the  constant  drilling  of  recruits 
outside  the  North  Gate.  The  farmers  are  at  work  in  their 
fields.  Inside  there  is  some  suspicion,  but  no  fear  except 
from  spies  and  poisoners  of  wells.  All  but  food-  and  water- 
carriers  must  have  passes  to  enter  the  City  gates.  On  account 
of  the  comparative  quiet  of  Wuchang  some  of  the  missionaries 
have  returned  to  their  stations  there,  but  are  regarded  in 
about  the  same  revolutionary  light  as  the  Chinese  and  are 
subject  to  the  same  scrutiny  and  even  suspicion.  Every  aid 
is  given  to  commerce.  All  markets  are  open,  and  quantities 
of  fresh  supplies  are  coming  in,  including  rice,  salt,  fish,  fruit, 
and  vegetables.  The  name  of  President  General  Li  Yuan-hung 
is  in  everyone's  mouth.  The  pervading  testimony  respecting 

135 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

him  is:  "He  is  good  [worthy],  he  loves  the  people.''  His 
influence  upon  the  people  must  be  considerable,  inasmuch  as 
it  shows  itself  in  their  lives.  "Everyone,"  says  our  foreign 
observer,  "from  general  to  common  soldier,  lives  on  250  cash 
per  day  or  less,  and  is  cultivating  the  simple  life." 


CHAPTER  XIII 
THE    PEN    OF   LI   YUAN-HUNG 

BY  November  10  between  800  and  900  deserters  from  the 
Imperialist  forces  have  reached  Wuchang.    In  the  face 
of  the  disasters  across  the  river  there  come  from  sur- 
rounding- provinces  these  encouraging  telegrams  to  General 
Li  Yuan-hung: 

"Tsai  Ao-han,  Military  Administrator  of  Yunnan,  to  Gen- 
eralissimo Li : 

"From  a  distance  we  saw  your  patriotic  banner  and  offer 
our  congratulations.  November  9  we  raised  our  own.  and 
the  whole  province  has  joined  with  us — the  garrisons  at  Linan- 
fu  and  Tali-fu — although  there  are  many  places  in  our  prov- 
inces from  which  news  comes  slowly.  We  desire  that  you 
inform  us  regarding  the  progress  of  the  movement  in  other 
provinces  and  how  matters  are  progressing  in  Hupeh." 

All  the  surrounding  regions  are  appealing  to  President 
General  Li  Yuan-hung  for  advice  and  instructions  as  to  how 
to  co-operate  with  him.  The  province  of  Kueichou  expects 
to  advance  against  the  North.  Its  military  administrator, 
Yang  Han,  telegraphs  that  Kueichou  declared  its  independence 
and  has  already  dispatched  Deputy  Yuan  to  represent  it  at 
Wuchang  with  a  view  to  advancing  to  the  North. 

Szechuan  asks  for  news  of  how  the  war  is  progressing 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Wuchang. 

It  is  not  progressing  as  satisfactorily  as  in  Szechuan. 
President  General  Li  Yuan-hung  is  on  the  defensive,  and  is 
merely  holding  his  own.  The  Imperialists  are  trying  to  cross 
the  Han  River  in  order  to  turn  his  left  flank  and  drive  his 
men  out  of  Hanyang.  This  they  are  unable  to  do  within  the 
range  of  the  Revolutionists'  cannon  on  Tortoise  Hill,  but  will 

137 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

ultimately  accomplish  to  the  north  of  the  Black  Mountain 
(Hei  Shan).  The  Revolutionists  are  running  the  arsenal  day 
and  night  and  claim  to  have  more  than  500  guns  there  with 
which  to  equip  their  defences. 

How  to  beat  the  Rebels,  how  to  beat  the  Imperialists, 
are  the  questions  of  November. 

Following  his  proclamations  inviting  the  Imperialist  sol- 
diers to  join  the  Revolution,  President  General  Li  Yuan-hung 
again  appeals  to  Admiral  Sah  Chen-ping  to  join.  This  time 
Admiral  Sah  consents  to  reply,  and  the  substance  of  what  he 
says  is  given  out  at  the  Republican  headquarters.  According 
to  this,  he  objects  to  the  Republican  form  of  government  be- 
cause it  is  one  thus  far  adopted  only  by  a  few  nations.  It 
would  be  better,  he  thinks,  to  convert  the  monarchy  into  a 
completely  constitutional  government.  He  is  credited  with 
saying  that  he  considers  there  has  been  enough  of  righting. 

General  Li  Yuan-hung's  reply  to  this  is  given  in  full.  He 
says: 

"In  reply  to  your  kind  letter,  I  have  great  pleasure  in  ex- 
pressing our  gratitude  for  your  advice  in  reference  to  the 
kind  of  government  we  should  adopt.  This  advice  shows 
that  you  are  full  of  desire  to  relieve  the  people  and  reform 
the  government. 

"The  revolution  in  Hupeh  is  but  a  token  of  the  feeling 
against  the  poisonous  monarchy.  Since  we  declared  only  a 
month  ago  that  the  government  would  be  made  Republican 
over  ten  provinces  have  joined  our  cause.  People  young  and 
old  are  sick  of  the  Manchu  Government  and  delighted  to  wel- 
come the  Republican  troops.  Those  who  lead  the  people  and 
the  troops  could  not  but  take  advantage  of  this  opportunity. 
We  have  already  deeply  considered  the  subject  you  discussed. 
The  problem  of  what  kind  of  government  we  should  adopt 
will  be  solved  in  the  grand  conference  of  the  representatives 
of  the  various  provinces  when  China  proper  is  made  independ- 
ent. It  is  generally  believed  that  your  idea  will  be  adopted, 
but  anyhow  the  Manchu  Government  should  be  got  rid  of. 
You  may  be  assured  that  the  present  monarchy  will  perish. 

138 


THE    PEN    OF   LI    YUAN-HUNG 

I  shall  marvel  if  you  do  not  join  us.  The  various  provinces 
will  without  doubt  welcome  you  with  all  their  hearts.  You 
will  play  a  great  part  in  the  conference  that  will  be  held. 

"In  your  letter  you  say  that  we  have  shown  our  military 
power  in  these  few  days  of  fighting,  but  we  assure  you  we 
could  not  help  fighting  against  the  Northern  troops,  as  other- 
wise they  would  have  seized  us.  It  is  with  regret  we  inform 
you  that  the  Northern  troops  have  burned  down  the  city  of 
Hankow.  This  has  caused  me  great  unhappiness.  But  the 
merchants  know  it  was  not  we  that  did  this  mischief. — Hoping 
for  your  favourable  reply,  etc., 

"Li  YUAN-HUNG." 

November  7,  the  Chinese  fleet  lying  at  Yang-lo  below 
Seven  Mile  Creek  consists  of  three  cruisers,  three  gunboats, 
and  three  torpedo-boats.  Admiral  Sah  is  awaiting  the  arrival 
of  his  chief,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  For  some  reason  unintelligible 
to  landsmen,  but  probably  to  attempt  to  blow  up  the  railway 
bridge,  one  of  the  gunboats  enters  the  mouth  of  Seven  Mile 
Creek  while  a  cruiser  waits  outside.  They  retire  later,  and 
nothing  more  is  noted  respecting  them  until  the  three  cruisers 
are  reported  far  down  stream  flying  the  Revolutionist  colours, 
and  November  12  all  remaining  war- vessels  heave  anchor  and 
follow  them. 

Admiral  Sah  has  not  seen  the  glories  again  pointed  out 
to  him  by  General  Li  Yuan-hung,  but  he  alone  of  all  the 
fleet  has  remained  loyal.  What  became  of  Admiral  Sah  was 
a  question  for  a  month.  Rumour  said  that  he  took  leave  of 
the  fleet  in  these  words :  "I  cannot  turn  to  the  Revolutionists' 
side  myself,  the  movement  is  too  big  for  me.  You,  however, 
must  do  something  for  your  country."  He  then  went  ashore 
at  some  point  down  the  river  and  proceeded  by  merchant- 
steamer  to  Shanghai.  This  was  the  only  answer  to  Li  Yuan- 
hung's  letter. 

Since  his  recall  from  retirement  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  has  tried 
to  get  into  direct  touch  with  Li  Yuan-hung.  After  he  is  ap- 
pointed to  the  command  of  all  the  military  and  naval  forces  of 
Central  China  he  writes  to  him,  but  gets  no  reply.  He  writes 

139 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

again  when  he  is  appointed  Premier,  and  after  he  has  started 
for  Hankow,  which  is  now  in  possession  of  his  troops.  He 
proposes  amnesty  and  pardon  for  the  Revolutionists,  the  es- 
tablishment of  constitutional  government  for  the  country,  and 
exclusion  of  members  of  the  Imperial  family  from  high  office, 
as  a  basis  of  peace.  Li  Yuan-hung  hears  that  a  delegate  is 
coming  from  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  and  November  8  in  counsel  with 
General  Huang  Hsing,  head  of  the  Republican  Ministry  of 
War,  and  the  generals  commanding  the  Revolutionary  forces, 
it  is  unanimously  decided  to  ask  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  to  be  the 
President  of  China. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  letter,  sent  by  hand  to  Li  Yuan-hung,  is 
as  follows : 

"Your  Excellency,  I  have  already  written  you  twice,  but 
having  received  no  answer,  I  am  not  aware  whether  or  not 
the  letters  have  reached  you.  In  accordance  with  Imperial 
instructions  I  have  now  to  state  that  an  edict  has  been  issued 
offering,  first,  full  pardon  for  all  past  offences;  second,  the 
establishment  of  constitutional  government ;  third,  amnesty  to 
all  political  offenders;  fourth,  that  members  of  the  Imperial 
Clan  will  not  be  employed  in  high  office. 

"These  points  being  granted,  in  my  opinion  the  govern- 
ment of  our  country  can  be  renovated  and  prosperity  brought 
back.  I  hasten  to  communicate  this  to  you  and  desire  that 
a  method  may  be  devised  by  which  the  present  difficulties  may 
be  peacefully  settled. 

"The  sooner  the  war  is  stopped  the  sooner  peace  will  be 
enjoyed  by  the  people  and  the  country.  If  fighting  goes  on, 
regardless  of  who  is  the  victor  or  the  vanquished,  not  only 
will  the  people  perish  but  the  resources  of  the  country  will 
be  wasted  until,  should  that  condition  continue  unduly,  affairs 
will  get  into  such  a  state  that  the  country  itself  will  be  ruined. 
Furthermore,  the  soldiers  of  both  sides  are  Chinese,  and  those 
who  suffer  are  all  Chinese.  Whether  the  one  side  or  the  other 
succeed,  it  is  the  Chinese  that  must  foot  the  bill. 

"Personally  I  have  been  a  long  time  dissatisfied  with  -the 
Government,  and  therefore  went  into  retirement,  never  in- 

140 


THE    PEN    OF    LI    YUAN-HUNG 

tending  to  accept  office  again.  In  leaving  my  retirement  now 
my  only  object  was  to  be  instrumental  in  composing  the  pres- 
ent differences.  Furthermore,  the  Government  is  now,  re- 
pentant as  it  never  was  before.  I  admit  that  but  for  your 
valorous  actions,  the  present  proposals  would  never  have 
been  made.  The  merit  of  them  belongs  to  you,  and  in  my 
humble  opinion  nothing  .could  be  better  than  to  take  advantage 
af  this  opportunity,  and,  by  concluding  peace,  secure  the  reali- 
sation of  the  Throne's  proposals.  We  can  at  least  see  how 
the  Throne  will  act,  and,  if  it  is  honest,  then  we  will  unitedly 
use  our  utmost  efforts  to  promote  the  reforms.  If  it  is  not 
honest,  we  can  still  in  consultation  devise  other  plans,  and, 
as  far  as  I  can  see,  there  can  be  no  failure  to  secure  the  full 
measure  of  our  hopes.  This  is  my  view,  and  I  will  ask  you 
to  send  me  an  answer  in  agreement  with  this,  so  that  I  may 
be  able  to  report  the  matter  to  the  Throne  and  carry  out  the 
necessary  arrangements. 

"As  regards  your  associates, — all  men  of  great  ability, 
— not  only  will  no  fault  be  found  with  them,  but  I  can  guar- 
antee they  will  be  appointed  to  high  positions  to  assist  in 
carrying  out  the  reforms. 

"The  Throne  trusts  me  as  one  whose  word  can  be  relied 
on,  and  you  also,  I  hope,  believe  that  I  would  on  no  account 
break  faith  with  respect  to  you  and  your  associates.  I  under- 
stand that  the  Throne  is  issuing  another  edict,  which  will 
reach  you  within  a  few  days.  I,  because  of  the  many  import- 
ant affairs  which  I  cannot  venture  to  neglect,  would  urge  you 
to  send  me  an  early  answer  by  the  hand  of  the  bearer  of  this 
letter. 

"My  respectful  prayers.  Wishing  you  peace  and  pros- 
perity, "YUAN  SHIH-K'AI." 

Li  Yuan-hung  replied.  It  was  like  the  "answer  to  the 
Sultan."  All  the  terms  offered  were  refused,  but  instead 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  urged  to  join  the  Revolutionist  camp, 
which  action  would  immediately  end  all  strife.  Expressing 
the  sentiments  of  the  generals  of  the  Revolutionist  army,  Li 
Yuan-hung  closed  with  the  observation  that  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's 

141 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

previous  history  was  such  that  no  camp  would  suit  him  better, 
and  if  he  would  come  over,  he  would  be  made  Provisional 
President  of  the  United  States  of  China. 

Li  Hou-chuan,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  delegate  in  these  commun- 
ications, returned  through  Hankow  to  his  superior  at  Nie- 
kou  on  the  railway  November  8,  and  on  November  9  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  left  for  Peking.  Before  leaving  the  battle  area,  he 
delegated  Liu  Chung-en  and  Tsai  Ting-kan  to  proceed  to 
Wuchang  to  ask  Li  Yuan-hung  and  the  Revolutionary  Gov- 
ernment to  appoint  a  peace  conference.  He  had  not  given 
up.  His  next  effort  is  described  by  the  Republican  news- 
paper Ta  Han  Pao: 

The  delegates  arrive  November  n  at  Wuchang  and  enter 
by  the  Tsao  Hu  Gate.  "They  were  asked  by  General  Li," 
says  the  Ta  Han  Pao,  "the  reason  of  their  coming  over.  Liu 
stated  his  opinions  as  follows :  'At  present  independence  has 
been  declared  by  most  of  the  provinces,  and  the  main  power 
is  now  being  entirely  held  in  the  hands  of  the  Hans,  which 
renders  the  Manchu  Government  totally  incapable.  But  as 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai  has  served  the  Manchu  Dynasty  during  three 
generations  it  seems  impossible  for  him  to  look  at  its  annihila- 
tion without  lending  a  helping  hand. 

'  'The  Manchu  Government  has  already  pledged  itself 
to  establish  a  solid  constitution,  demolish  all  sorts  of  unrea- 
sonable taxation,  and  give  the  different  provinces  freedom 
in  arranging  their  financial  affairs.  In  view  of  these  promises, 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai  desires  that  the  different  provinces  shall  not 
open  war  again  in  order  by  not  doing  so  to  save  the  people 
from  further  suffering. 

"  'Regarding  the  Manchu  Government,  it  is  at  present 
simply  like  an  idol  worshipped  by  monks — a  master  in  appear- 
ance only.  Moreover,  we  recently  have  been  warned  that 
Japan  and  Russia  have  both  dispatched  an  Admiral  to  China, 
with  what  intentions  we  are  at  a  loss  to  anticipate,  but  should 
like  Your  Excellency  to  have  a  thorough  consideration  of  the 
matter  before  too  late,  so  as  to  prevent  the  calamity  of  the 
partition  of  China.' 

"  'Oh,  how  absurd  you  are !'  interrupted  General  Li.  'In 

142 


THE    PEN    OF    LI    YUAN-HUNG 

what  manner  can  the  word  "partition"  intimidate  the  Revo- 
lutionists of  Hupeh?  Regardless  of  whether  international 
law  is  strictly  observed  by  all  the  Powers,  they  should  not 
have  made  any  improper  movement.  But  in  case  they  should 
'  do  so,  a  suitable  settlement  may  finally  be  arranged  with  them. 
Among  the  millions  of  our  Hupeh  brothers  there  is  not  one 
but  is  enthusiastic  and  courageous  and  who  will  decidedly  not 
allow  the  Manchus  to  continue  their  usurpation  of  our  heredi- 
tary right  to  the  country.  On  the  other  hand,  if  our  Chinese 
brethren  encourage  no  revolution,  is  there  any  possibility  by 
which  the  Manchus  could  guarantee  that  the  Powers  would 
not  "carve  the  melon"? 

"  'In  reference  to  the  purpose  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  in  sending 
you  here,  we  have  now  already  had  the  honour  to  be  informed. 
According  to  our  calculations  we  venture  to  guess  that  he  is 
now  contriving  to  inveigle  the  generals  of  different  provinces 
not  to  declare  war  or  draw  their  swords  against  him,  tempo- 
rarily, so  that  he  may  have  time  for  employing  counter-strata- 
gems deliberately  among  them  to  raise  unnatural  frictions  for 
his  own  advantage.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  then  shall  be  able  to  take 
possession  and  to  wield  an  influence  in  military  and  civil 
affairs  which  shall  enable  him  to  drive  out  the  Manchus  and 
proclaim  himself  Emperor  of  China.  Alas!  it  is  a  wise 
scheme,  but  rather  difficult  to  perform.  It  would  be  better  for 
him  to  capture  the  provinces  of  Chihli  and  Honan  with  his 
detachments  immediately  for  the  revolution,  then  a  General's 
position  shall  certainly  be  open  to  him  for  his  merits.  After 
this  grand  achievement  a  public  election  will  take  place,  and 
being  a  person  of  high  reputation  he  may  probably  hope  to 
be  voted  as  the  President  of  New  China.  Otherwise  nothing 
more  should  now  be  said  except  to  appoint  a  time  for  decisive 
battle. 

"  'As  for  his  having  served  the  Manchus  during  three 
generations  and  received  heavy  benevolences  from  them,  does 
he  still  remember  that  at  the  time  when  Pu  Yi  [the  Hsuan 
Tung  Emperor]  was  to  be  enthroned  how  his  head  was  rock- 
ing on  his  shoulders  ?  At  present,  the  general  order  in  China 
has  been  overturned,  and  we  apprehend  that  there  will  be  no 

»43 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

more  days  for  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  to  serve  the  Manchus  again. 
Besides,  the  land  of  China  is  originally  the  lawful  property 
of  our  Hans,  and  it  may  be  compared  to  a  home  illegally 
occupied  by  banditti  who  have  seized  the  family  possessions, 
enslaved  the  husbands,  wives,  and  children,  and  used  them 
again  as  stewards.  I  should  think  that  even  the  most  cold- 
blooded creature  would  not  acknowledge  these  bandits  as  his 
benefactors.  You  two  gentlemen  are  both  the  descendants  of 
Han,  what  do  you  think  of  my  words?' 

"On  hearing  the  above,"  continues  the  Ta  Han  Pao,  "Tsai 
deeply  blushed  without  saying  anything,  while  Li  replied: 
The  sayings  of  Your  Excellency  are  all  precious  words  which 
will  awaken  us  as  a  sleeping  lion  from  his  dreams,  and  we 
shall  surely  report  the  same  on  our  return.' 

"At  this  juncture  everyone  present  except  the  two  dele- 
gates rose  and  severely  reproved  the  low  grade  of  Yuan's  per- 
sonage as  well  as  the  worthlessness  of  the  delegates'  mission. 
The  latter  only  listened  silently  with  crimson  cheeks.  Finally, 
General  Li  invited  the  delegates  to  a  feast,  and  asked  them 
to  remain  as  his  guests  for  a  whole  night,  with  a  promise  to 
send  them  over  the  river  with  due  ceremonies  in  the  morning. 
At  the  feast  were  all  the  principals  of  the  different  depart- 
ments of  the  Government.  The  delegates  were  lodged  for  the 
night  in  the  Municipal  Hall,  and  took  their  leave  the  next 
morning." 

It  was  also  the  day  when  the  fleet  below  Wuchang  took 
its  leave  of  the  Empire  and  turned  over  to  the  Republic. 

The  delegates  carried  with  them  Li  Yuan-hung's  letter 
to  Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  Rehearsing  his  views  on  the  terms  of- 
fered the  Manchus  for  peace,  in  similar  words  to  those  con- 
tained in  his  reply  to  Admiral  Sah,  Li  Yuan-hung  in  this  let- 
ter calls  attention  to  how  the  Manchu  Government  has  tried 
various  tricks  to  gain  a  hold  on  the  people's  hearts,  and  how 
the  foundations  of  the  Empire  remain  still  in  the  grasp  of 
childish,  ignorant  Manchus. 

Man  to  man,  he  then  goes  on:  "Surely  you  cannot  bear 
with  composure  to  see  the  property  and  lives  of  400,000,000 
Chinese  wasted  by  a  mere  handful  of  Manchus?  Are  you 

144 


THE    PEN    OF   LI    YUAN-HUNG 

not  the  most  famous  and  most  able  man  among  the  Chinese? 
Have  you  forgotten  that,  after  you  had  been  relieved  of  your 
command  of  the  Northern  troops  and  your  political  influence 
had  been  weakened,  you  narrowly  escaped  being  murdered  as 
well  as  cashiered?  All  this  is  evidence  of  the  Manchus'  jeal- 
ousy of  the  Chinese. 

"Since  Hupeh  was  made  independent  many  other  provinces 
have  joined  the  cause  with  heart  and  soul.  The  Manchu  Gov- 
ernment has  fallen  into  a  swoon  and  can  no  longer  stand  by  its 
own  strength.  So  it  is  trying  the  scheme  by  which  it  quelled 
the  T'aiping  Rebellion — using  Chinese  to  kill  Chinese.  If  you 
are  willing  to  be  reinstated  on  such  a  commission,  then  you 
have  super-human  patience. 

"In  your  dispatch  you  state  emphatically  that  the  govern- 
ment must  be  constitutional.  In  reply  I  wish  to  explain  that 
in  this  age,  whether  a  government  be  monarchical  or  republi- 
can, it  must  ultimately  be  founded  on  constitutionalism,  and 
there  is  little  difference  between  a  republic  and  a  constitu- 
tional monarchy.  The  form  of  the  new  government  will  be 
settled  in  the  conference  of  delegates  from  the  various  prov- 
inces. Whatever  form  it  takes,  it  will  not  violate  constitu- 
tionalism. 

"If  we  had  agreed  to  your  terms,  had  you  any  means  of 
compelling  the  Manchu  Government  'to  fulfil  its  promises? 

"For  you  to  live  in  retirement  for  your  own  enjoyment 
as  you  have  done  is  of  no  benefit  to  China. 

"The  success  of  the  present  movement  has  come  by  the 
strength  not  of  men  but  of  God.  What  man  could  convert 
Szechuan,  Kiangsi,  Anhuei,  Kiangsu,  Kuangtung,  Kwangst, 
Yunnan,  Kueichou,  Shansi,  and  Shensi  to  Republicanism? 
Besides,  all  the  gunboats  and  torpedo-destroyers  have  turned 
Revolutionist. 

"There  is  no  Manchu  force  to  hinder  us  from  marching 
on  Peking,  with  the  exception  of  your  little  army. 

"The  renaissance  of  the  Chinese  and  the  maintenance  of 
China's  sovereignty  depend  on  you.  If  you  are  really  in 
sympathy  with  the  Chinese,  you  should  take  your  opportunity 
to  turn  Republican  with  your  troops  and  attack  Peking.  If 

145 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

you  are  hankering  after  the  dignities  and  honours  that  the 
Manchu  Government  may  confer,  then  you  should  pray  that 
the  Revolutionary  army  may  hasten  its  march  to  the  Yellow 
River.  For,  when  the  Manchus  see  that  they  cannot  withstand 
the  Revolutionary  advance,  they  will  give  you  all  the  higher 
honours  to  induce  you  to  fight  for  them.  If  we  should  yield 
now,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  honours  bestowed  on  you 
would  vanish  in  a  few  days.  Remember  the  proverb :  'When 
the  rabbits  are  caught  the  hounds  are  cooked.'  Your  merit 
would  be  so  great  that  you  would  not  avoid  jealousy,  and 
your  power  would  make  you  liable  to  constant  suspicion.  It 
would  be  impossible  for  you  to  retire  again  to  Changteh-fu. 
I  would  remind  you  that  the  Empress  Dowager  [Lung  Yu 
Empress  Dowager]  is  still  living  and  that  she  will  never 
forgive  the  slaughter  of  the  reformers.  Consider  if  there 
is  any  affection  between  yourself  and  the  Manchus.  All  of  us 
working  together  can  complete  the  emancipation  of  the  Chi- 
nese, and  none  of  us  are  willing  to  continue  under  the  rule  of 
the  Manchus. 

"As  to  your  suggestions  that  foreign  Powers  may  seize 
this  opportunity  of  bringing  about  the  partition  of  China,  we 
have  read  many  articles  from  foreign  papers  and  we  feel  sure 
that  'none  of  them  will  do  us  any  harm  during  our  civil  war. 

"We  have  learned  from  a  wireless  telegram  to  a  certain 
gentleman  that  Peking  is  in  great  agitation  and  that  the  young 
Emperor  has  fled.  Should  this  be  true,  the  ruling  race  has 
already  lost  its  dignity  and  has  no  right  to  present  our  terri- 
tory to  any  foreign  Power. 

"It  is  reported  that  the  Manchu  Government  has  recalled 
you.  If  that  is  so,  I  offer  two  suggestions  for  your  considera- 
tion. First :  It  may  be  that  the  Government  suspects  your 
loyalty  and  intends  by  recalling  you  to  deprive  you  of  your 
military  authority ;  in  that  case,  you  may  disobey  the  sum- 
mons by  virtue  of  military  rule,  that  a  general  need  not  obey 
an  Imperial  edict  when  he  is  on  service  abroad. 

"Second :  If  Peking  is  actually  in  a  critical  condition — I 
must  tell  you  a  story.  During  the  Boxer  rising,  when  the 
international  force  entered  Peking,  it  summoned  Li  Hung- 

146 


THE    PEN    OF    LI    YUAN-HUNG 

chang.  That  was  an  opportunity  for  Li  to  become  Emperor. 
But  he  was  stubborn  and  lost  the  chance.  You  may  learn 
from  his  experience. 

"Mencius  said  that  a  man  with  complete  education  will 
protect  the  people.  I  am  but  a  military  man  and  do  not  know 
much.  I  have  learned  largely  from  Mencius,  so  that  I  have 
no  desire  except  to  protect  the  people.  It  is  believed  that  your 
experience  and  ability  are  much  higher  than  mine.  Yet  I  am 
sorry  for  you  that  you  have  to  consider  things  so  very  long 
before  you  can  make  up  your  mind.  Remember  that  we 
should  never  hesitate  or  delay  in  doing  what  is  benevolent  or 
righteous.  We  should  do  the  right  thing  at  once. 

"All  the  brethren  of  thi£  land  are  waiting  for '.you.  Do 
not  face  me  any  longer  with  a  mask. 

"Your  delegates  will  inform  you  further  in  regard  to  my 
sentiments.  "Li  YUAN-HUNG." 


CHAPTER  XIV 
HANYANG— A   BATTLE 

YUAN  SHIH-K'AI  left  Nie-kou  to  the  sounds  of  the  bat- 
tle by  which  his  "little  army"  was  to  take  the  second 
of  the  three  sister-cities  of  the  Republic. 

The  fighting  was  for  the  possession  of  the  city  of  Hanyang, 
covered  a  period  of  three  weeks,  and  was  prolonged  by  the 
necessity  of  building  bridges  across  the  Han  far  up  and  mov- 
ing troops  to  flank  the  Revolutionists'  left.  November  7,  Han- 
kow observed  that  the  Imperialists  were  advancing  from  Kilo- 
metre 10,  and  heard  they  had  moved  twenty-four  15-centi- 
metre guns  into  a  semicircular  position  in  the  plain  threaten- 
ing Hanyang.  They  were  being  shelled  from  Wuchang,  the 
shells  striking  in  Hankow  and  even  falling  in  the  Concessions. 

This  was  the  day  of  Li  Yuan-hung's  refusal  of  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai's  proposal  on  behalf  of  the  Throne.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's 
reply  to  this  may  be  said  to  have  been  expressed  by  his  Gen- 
eral Feng  Kuo-chang,  who  November  8  issued  a  proclama- 
tion announcing  satisfaction  at  the  behaviour  of  his  troops — 
which  may  be  mistaken  for  an  attempt  to  justify  their  past 
barbarities,  and  stating  that  the  capture  of  Hanyang  and  Wu- 
chang may  be  expected  momentarily.  Those  who  have  of- 
fended or  done  harm  to  the  Government  will  be  severely  pun- 
ished. The  merchants  of  Hankow  are  exhorted  to  carry  on 
business,  as  the  Imperialists  have  no  intention  of  creating 
damage  in  the  City  and  no  more  burning  will  be  countenanced. 
The  battle  to  bring  Li  Yuan-hung  to  terms  begins.. 

General  Chang  Piao  visits  Hankow  to  see  what  the  imme- 
diate condition  is.  The  condition  is  expressed  by  a  miserable- 
looking  native  in  the  Hanyang  end  of  Hankow  to  a  missionary 
who  consents  to  listen : 

"Master,  may  I  say  a  word  ?"  said  he.  "Which  is  the  best 
way  to  flee?" 

148 


HANYANG— A    BATTLE 

November  9  the  artillery  engagement  begins — the  con- 
ventional battle  order — between  Imperialist  batteries  at  Kilo- 
metre 10  and  the  Wuchang  batteries  (Chin  Shan).  It  is  for 
half  an  hour.  The  Imperialists  lose  several  railway  trucks, 
hit  and  fired.  There  is  fighting  along  the  Han,  in  Hanyang, 
with  rifles  all  day,  but  November  10  and  n  there  is  a  cessa- 
tion by  the  Imperialists  to  await  the  outcome  of  two  days  of 
demonstration  and  the  mission  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  delegates, 
Liu  and  Tsai. 

November  12,  when  the  delegates  have  departed  for  the 
North,  and  shortly  after  5  P.M.,  the  heaviest  bombardment 
of  the  attack  takes  place,  and  lasts  45  minutes.  Imperialist 
soldiers  are  intermittently  occupying  the  China  Merchants' 
Steam  Navigation  Company's  cargo  hulk  Volga  and  sniping  at 
passing  sampans  near  the  Concessions,  when  November  13  it 
is  sunk  by  Revolutionist  shells.  The  shore  batteries  at  Wu- 
chang are  trying  to  sink  a  second  hulk  close  by,  and  a  shell 
enters  the  dining-room  of  the  Manager  of  Jardine,  Matheson 
and  Company's  house,  while  three  other  concerns  in  the  Con- 
cessions receive  shells  in  their  buildings. 

If  the  Revolutionists  can  drive  the  Imperialists  out  of 
that  part  of  Hankow  between  the  Concessions  and  the  Han 
River  they  can  send  troops  across  the  Yangtse  and  up  the 
Han. 

The  Imperialists  are  moving  by  rear  waterways  in  the 
direction  of  the  Han  and  shipping  sampans  by  rail,  for  pon- 
toons, to  a  point  twenty  miles  west  of  Hankow. 

The  war-invested  foreigners  in  the  Concessions  are  again 
anxious.  November  13  the  British  Admiral  Winsloe  and  the 
German  Vice-Admiral  von  Krosig  have  departed  for  Nanking. 
November  14,  Colonel  Willoughby,  British  military  attache 
from  Peking,  and  Commander  Lynes,  with  G.  P.  Byrne  as  in- 
terpreter, proceed  to  Wuchang  and  protest  against  the  bom- 
bardment of  the  British  Concession.  This  Concession  is  in 
the  most  exposed  position,  adjoining  the  section  of  Hankow 
occupied  by  the  Imperialists.  The  Japanese  Concession  is 
at  the  other  extreme  of  the  Concession  Quarter  and  farthest 
from  present  danger,  but  the  Japanese  flag-captain,  afloat, 

149 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

protests  against  the  firing  by  the  Wuchang  guns  on  a  Japanese 
gunboat  the  previous  day. 

The  Revolutionists  reconnoitre  Hankow  to  see  what  dam- 
age has  been  done  by  their  artillery  fire.  The  middle  part  is 
already  destroyed  by  past  fires.  "From  the  river,"  says  a 
spectator,  "it  reminds  one  of  nothing  so  much  as  Messina 
after  the  earthquake."  The  fighting  has  already  started  an 
exodus  from  that  eastern  sixth  of  Hankow  next  to  the  British 
Concession,  which  is  not  wholly  destroyed  and  which  is 
crowded  with  refugees.  "Chinese  have  been  making  their 
way  out  of  Hankow  with  bedding  and  what  baggage  they  can 
carry.  Not  one  seems  to  expect  ever  to  see  his  house  again." 
The  French  telegraph  their  Government  respecting  the  inade- 
quate protection  it  is  giving  them.  November  16  the  Revolu- 
tionists in  force — stated  at  more  than  2,000 — crossed  the  Han 
at  Tu-lu-kou  and  attacked  the  Imperialist  right  flank  in  the 
rear,  and  retired  after  being  repulsed. 

November  17  the  big  battle  begins.  The  buildings  of  the 
China  Merchants'  Steam  Navigation  Company  go  up  in  flames 
set  by  Wuchang  shells.  The  Imperialists  lose  300  killed  in 
pushing  back  the  Revolutionists  on  their  base  on  the  Sin-seng 
Road.  There  are  wounded  and  dead  coming  into  the  Con- 
cessions all  afternoon.  The  contract  price  for  burial  is  fifty 
cents  with  coffin,  and  twenty-five  cents  without.  The  munici- 
pal coolies,  in  the  Concessions,  have  become  undertakers  and 
visit  the  Red  Cross  hospitals  regularly.  About  5  P.M.,  under 
cover  of  their  bombardment,  Revolutionist  reinforcements 
from  Wuchang  enter  the  Han  on  lighters  in  spite  of  the  Im- 
perialist fire.  A  Red  Cross  worker  behind  the  guns  of  a 
Wuchang  battery  sees  steam  tugs,  each  drawing  six  or  seven 
empty  ierry  barges,  cross  under  a  withering  fire  in  an  attempt 
to  enter  the  Han  and  deliver  their  barges  to  make  pontoons 
between  Hanyang  and  Hankow.  The  first  attempt  fails,  but 
the  second  succeeds.  The  Revolutionists  are  now  prepared 
to  drive  the  Imperialists  out  of  the  burned  City.  The  Revo- 
lutionary General  of  the  3rd  Division  is  killed,  but  General 
Li  Yuan-hung  seems  confident  of  victory.  He  has  intimated 
through  the  Red  Cross  Society  that  in  the  event  of  a  Revolu- 

150 


HANYANG— A    BATTLE 

tionist  victory  all  Imperialist  troops  who  surrender  will  be 
treated  as  non-combatants,  and  that  if  the  foreign  authorities 
are  willing  to  allow  such  to  seek  refuge  in  the  Concessions 
and  feed  them,  he  will  pay  the  cost. ' 

The  Revolutionists  cross  the  Yangtse  and  attack  the  Im- 
perialist rear  in  the  region  of  Nie-kou.  The  Imperialists  are 
coming  down  the  Han  from  Hsiao-kan.  The  fighting  con- 
tinues through  the  night.  The  British  gunboat  Woodcock, 
ship  of  Commander  Lynes,  is  struck  for  the  second  time  dur- 
ing the  present  battle,  and  British  residents  appeal  to  their 
Government  for  more  efficient  protection.  The  Germans  take 
similar  action. 

A  good  and  creditable  artillery  dual  between  Kilometre  10, 
that  began  the  battle,  and  the  Wuchang  Golden  Hill  forts 
distinguishes  the  day  of  November  18.  November  19  sees 
the  reappearance  of  the  Chinese  fleet,  which  having  put  ashore 
their  Imperialist  Admiral  Sah  returns  under  the  Revolutionist 
flag.  While  manoeuvring  opposite  Seven  Mile  Creek  it  bom- 
bards the  Imperialists  45  minutes  in  the  morning  and  for  a 
time  after  2  P.M. 

Word  passes  from  man  to  man  in  Wuchang  that  "the 
gunboats  have  arrived."  The  people  seem  filled  with  fresh 
confidence.  "A  noticeable  feature  nowadays  is  the  absence 
of  the  half-dressed,  half-trained  recruit  of  a  fortnight  or  so 
ago."  "The  presence  of  the  turbaned,  well-trained  Hunanese 
gives  the  impression  that  the  City  is  no  longer  in  the  hands 
of  coolies."  "Huang  Hsing  has  thoroughly  reorganised  the 
army." 

Three-fourths  of  Hankow  are  destroyed. 

November  20  and  21  the  antagonists  prepare  for  the  last 
week  of  fighting.  November  21  Li  Yuan-hung  holds  a  me- 
morial service  for  the  dead.  The  Government  headquarters 
are  hung  with  red  flags,  and  other  decorations  and  offerings 
are  set  on  tables.  Representatives  of  all  bureaus  are  present. 
November  22  fighting  begins  at  six  in  the  morning  by  the 
Revolutionists  sinking  the  remaining  cargo  hulk  of  the  China 
Merchants'  Steam  Navigation  Company.  The  Imperialists 
join  in  at  ii  A.M.,  and  begin  bringing  up  supplies  and  massing 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

soldiers  near  Nie-kou.  The  Red  Cross  workers  bring  in  51 
wounded  Revolutionists  in  one  line  from  Hanyang,  and  No- 
vember 23  more  than  100  from  the  Revolutionists'  lines.  The 
Imperialist  losses  increase  in  the  same  ratio.  They  continue 
to  reinforce. 

The  Imperialists  have  .bridged  the  Han  in  three  places, 
at  Chiao-kou,  Tu-lu-kou,  and  Tsai-tien,  above  Black  Mountain, 
and  are  moving  in  force  (in  the  excitement  estimated  at 
10,000  to  20,000)  against  Hanyang,  the  Revolutionist  left.  A 
ninety-six-hours'  battle  has  commenced. 

November  24  the  fleet  enters  the  fight,  and  the  fighting 
line  from  the  fleet  to  Hsiao-kan  is  nearly  thirty  miles  long. 
Firing  ceases  for  only  two  hours.  The  Revolutionists  are 
making  their  main  action  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Hankow 
and  declare  that  the  Imperialists  will  never  reach  Hanyang. 
The  Imperialists  are  firing  the  unburnt  area  of  Hankow  ad- 
joining the  British  Concession.  When  the  fighting  first  began 
over  the  ruins  of  two-thirds  of  Hankow  it  was  a  hot  place 
for  people  who  say,  in  peace,  that  the  big  eat  the  small,  the 
small  eat  the  little,  and  the  little  eat  mud.  Now,  when  men 
who  have  asked  in  vain  for  some  place  to  flee  burrow  in  mud 
and  ashes,  the  cats  of  Hankow  and  Hanyang  take  to  the 
waters  of  the  Han.  Additional  shells  fall  in  the  Concessions 
November  24  and  25.  The  Shensi  guild-house,  the  most  costly 
and  famous  building  in  Hankow  and  one  of  the  architectural 
monuments  of  China  vanishes  in  the  flames.  November  26 
the  Russian  gunboat  Mandjour  is  struck  by  a  shell.  There 
are  five  fires,  and  13,000  gallons  of  burning  American  kero- 
sene is  giving  out  a  black  pall  of  smoke  that  extends  ten  miles 
along  the  line  of  battle  from  Kilometre  10  to  Hanyang. 

Fires  are  seen  in  the  direction  of  the  Imperialist  advance 
down  the  Han,  toward  Hanyang. 

Wuchang  remains  relatively  peaceful.  The  Golden  Hill 
(Chin  Shan)  forts  abreast  Kilometre  10  have  forty  wounded 
from  shrapnel  fired  from  Kilometre  10.  Shrapnel  also  falls 
near  General  Huang  Hsing's  headquarters  at  Serpent  Hill. 
The  Revolutionist  fleet  is  down  the  bend  supporting  the  land- 
ing party  of  Kiangsi  troops  working  against  the  railway. 

152 


HANYANG— A    BATTLE 

November  27,  Hanyang  is  lost.  The  Hunan  troops,  those 
that  came  up  from  Changsha  on  launches  and  junks  and  gave 
the  Republican  Capital  such  a  martial  appearance;  those 
whom  the  Ta  Han  Pao  has  said  are  to  be  distinguished  by 
their  turbans  and  straw  sandals,  and  in  accordance  with  Li 
Yuan-hung's  orders  are  to  be  shown  special  kindness ;  those 
who,  according  to  the  foreign  correspondents,  inspired  Wu- 
chang with  confidence  that  the  Republic  was  no  longer  in  the 
hands  of  coolie  recruits,  have  given  way.  They  have  first 
been  held  in  reserve  awaiting  the  time  of  the  Imperialist  on- 
slaught, when  the  Revolutionary  mixed  regiments  will  need 
to  be  reinforced  by  regulars.  Now  through  the  Revolutionist 
lines  and  camps  goes  the  rumour  that  the  Hunan  troops  have 
deserted  the  battle-line.  The  Hunanese  accuse  the  Hupeh 
troops  of  throwing  the  burden  of  the  fight  upon  them,  and 
they  quit  the  field  in  retaliation.  Black  Mountain  is  lost. 
Bright  Hill  and  Tortoise  Hill  are  lost.  Hanyang  is  lost.  The 
Revolutionists  are  beaten  out  of  their  strongholds.  They 
give  up  another  city,  the  iron-works,  and  the  arsenal,  with 
guns  and  ammunition. 

On  the  morning  of  November  27  the  Imperialist  flanking 
force  on  the  Han  is  driving  the  Revolutionists  before  it  out 
of  Hanyang.  As  the  Revolutionists  retire  they  seek  a  crossing 
to  Wuchang,  farther  up  the  river,  or  retreat  into  the  country. 
But  a  fraction  of  them  seeks  boats  on  the  Yangtse  water  front 
of  Hanyang,  or  on  the  Han,  and  trusts  itself  to  the  water. 
Caught  in  the  current  and  unacquainted  with  the  boats,  these 
are  carried  past  the  eastern  end  of  the  burnt  Hankow  native 
city,  which  has  never  been  taken  from  the  Imperialists.  An 
awful  carnage  ensues.  In  addition  to  the  Imperialist  rifle  and 
machine-gun  fire  from  the  shore  the  artillery  of  Wuchang  and 
that  of  the  Imperialists  back  of  Hankow  are  playing  upon 
the  spot.  About  midday  more  than  a  score  of  sampans  and 
larger  boats  pass  helplessly  abreast  the  Imperialist  rifles  and 
machine-guns  on  shore  and  are  riddled  by  shot,  some  of  them 
converted  into  mere  hulks  of  half-sunken  lumber. 

The  water  is  strewn  with  crimson  corpses. 

As  the   helpless   drifting  wreckage  of  boats   and  bodies 

153 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

passes  beyond  the  Hankow  shore  occupied  by  the  Imperialist 
marksmen,  it  encounters  the  foreign  war-vessels,  which  lower 
men  in  launches  and  pinnaces  to  receive  the  living  and  dead. 
The  Red  Cross  launch  puts  out  from  the  Concessions,  and 
foreign  merchants  send  their  launches. 

Corpses  float  by,  slowly  sinking  beneath  the  yellow  waters 
of  the  Yangtse. 

Clinging  to  one  sampan  freighted  with  an  equal  number  of 
dead  are  three  or  four  Revolutionary  soldiers,  on  the  far  side, 
away  from  the  fire.  They  are  hauled  out  and  landed  safely 
at  the  Concession  bund.  Some  of  the  boats  contain  fleeing 
families  of  which  only  one  living  member  remains.  A  number 
of  boats  come  down  empty,  their -occupants  having  taken  to 
the  water,  from  where  numbers  are  picked  up. 

Carlowitz  and  Company's  launch  tows  ashore  the  hulk  of  a 
great  war- junk  that  started  with  a  hundred  people  from  Han- 
yang. It  is  packed  with  the  bodies  of  twenty-seven  dead, 
twenty-six  badly  wounded,  and  twenty-two  who  have  escaped 
injury.  As  the  hulk  moves  inshore  another,  who  is  hauled 
along  in  the  water,  loses  his  hold  on  the  hulk  and  drowns,  as 
it  were,  in  the  arms  of  safety. 

"We  were  fighting  at  Mei-niang  Mountain,"  said  a  sur- 
vivor, a  sergeant  of  the  Revolutionist  7th  Regiment,  "and 
had  been  on  duty  four  days  and  nights  without  undressing  or 
sleeping.  All  our  officers  were  wounded  or  killed,  and  only 
about  two  camps  of  the  Regiment  remained.  We  were  driven 
back  to  the  banks  of  the  Yangtse,  fighting  all  the  time,  and 
when  we  got  there  we  found  this  war-junk  tied  up  to  the  bank 
for  repairs.  We  went  aboard  to  get  shelter,  and  were  joined 
by  others.  Finally,  being  pressed,  we  pushed  the  junk  off, 
and  the  current  took  charge.  By  this  time  the  Imperialists  had 
occupied  Hanyang  Hill  and  the  temple  at  its  foot  beside  the 
Han,  so  they  opened  on  us  with  machine-guns  and  rifles.  Our 
own  batteries  at  Wuchang  also  fired  at  us,  and  we  were  shot 
at  all  the  way  to  the  Concessions." 

"Some  thought  our  batteries  at  Wuchang  were  trying  to 
cover  our  retreat,"  said  a  soldier  of  the  8th  Regiment  who 
had  retreated  from  the  Hanyang  iron-works.  "Others  aboard 

154 


HANYANG— A    BATTLE 

believed  our  batteries  were  firing  at  us  thinking  we  were  de- 
serters. Any  way,  we  got  it  from  both  sides." 

The  soldiers  rescued  from  the  bloody  war- junk  did  not 
know  they  were  defeated.  They  wanted  to  get  back  to  the 
front,  and  on  second  thought  wanted  to  eat  and  to  sleep. 
"One  said  he  would  fight  as  long  as  he  was  alive,  and  would 
not  admit  defeat  until  he  was  dead."  None  knew  how  the 
Bright  Hill  and  Tortoise  Hill  had  been  lost.  "All  they  knew 
was  that  a  red  flag  went  up  and  they  were  shot  at."  When 
told  that  Hanyang  Hill  was  taken,  "they  denied  it,  and  said 
Huang  Hsing  was  still  driving  back  the  enemy." 

The  Chinese  police  in  the  Foreign  Concessions  and  the 
house  "boys"  would  tell  passers-by :  "They  say  Hanyang  is 
fallen.  It  is  false,  do  not  believe  it."  Sometimes  a  Chinese 
would  stop  the  same  person  several  times  and  tell  him  this. 

November  28,  the  following  bulletin  was  issued  by  the 
Revolutionist  paper  the  Ta  Han  Pao  :  "Yesterday  the  spies 
of  the  Northern  army  fabricated  and  circulated  a  bulletin  to 
the  effect  that  the  Bright  Hill  and  Tortoise  Hill  of  Hanyang 
had  been  seized  by  the  Northern  troops.  This  is  all  empty 
words.  No  such  thing  has  ever  happened,  for  I  have  but  this 
morning  returned  from  Hanyang  to  Hankow  and  know  that 
if  is  false.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  scheme  to  lead  the  North- 
ern troops  into  ambush,  when  their  whole  army  will  be  an- 
nihilated." 

The  Republican  Government  at  Wuchang  recognized  the 
situation  thus  created  for  it  by  the  following  proclamation 
put  out  by  the  Assembly : 

"The  Manchu  Government  is  in  an  extreme  financial  panic 
and  is  collecting  funds  from  the  Imperial  Family  for  military 
purposes.  What  it  has  in  hand  is  only  taels  2,000,000.  All 
foreign  nations  have  declared  a  strict  neutrality,  so  that  the 
Manchu  Government  cannot  raise  any  loan  from  any  foreign 
nation.  The  fall  of  Hanyang  will  not  involve  the  whole  situa- 
tion of  the  Republicans.  It  is  sincerely  hope*ti  that  the  Repub- 
lican army  in  this  province  will  do  its  utmost  to  keep  posses- 
sion of  Wuchang.  All  the  other  provinces  will  do  what  is  in 

155 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

their  power  to  drive   the  Manchu   Government   out  of  this 
region." 

General  Li  Yuan-hung  put  out  a  bulletin  for  the  informa- 
tion of  the  people,  giving  the  substance  of  a  great  hoax  de- 
vised by  a  man  named  Chu  Fei-huang,  who  came  to  see  him 
and  claimed  to  have  been  sent  by  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  for  the  pur- 
pose of  arranging  for  peace  negotiations.  Chu  Fei-huang  said 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  joined  by  General  Chiang  Kuei-ti,  had  led  the 
Chinese  soldiers  in  Peking  against  the  Throne  and  was  recog- 
nised as  the  sole  authority  by  the  foreign  Powers  in  Peking; 
that  he  had  not  recalled  the  troops  from  Hankow  and  Han- 
yang because  he  was  not  sure  his  authority  would  be  recog- 
nised here.  General  Li  Yuan-hung  says  in  the  bulletin  that 
he  is  willing  to  defer  to  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  but  that  the  whole 
thing  may  be  a  trick,  and  he  exhorts  the  officers  and  soldiers 
to  continue  their  vigilance  and  remain  on  their  guard. 

At  the  end  of  November,  1911,  the  Revolutionist  Press  ad- 
mitted the  fall  of  Hanyang,  but  placed  the  blame  on  Chinese 
traitors  who,  it  said,  had  gone  to  the  Imperialist  General  Feng 
Kuo-chang  and  asked  for  a  reward. 

"It  is  reported  that  the  reward  he  gave  was  to  take  off 
their  heads,"  adds  one  paper. 


CHAPTER  XV 
NOVEMBER   IN    PEKING 

IT  is  now  November  in  Peking.  The  flames  of  Hankow- 
fire  new  fuses  to  the  mine  underlying  the  Capital.  Han- 
kow, the  great  capital  of  industrial  China,  in  the  first 
days  of  November  is  burning — a  lurid  attraction  for  the  eyes 
of  the  world ;  but  Peking  is  the  centre  of  centres.  It  is  against 
Peking  that  all  these  forces  springing  up  in  the  Empire  oper- 
ate. They  operate  to  complete  its  discomfiture  and  demoralisa- 
tion. 

Events  supply  the  Throne  with  ample  material  for  edicts, 
which  flow  on  unchecked.  It  descends  from  precipice  to  preci- 
pice. In  its  progress  of  disintegration  it  goes  on  vacating  offi- 
ces, surrendering  its  powers,  retracting,  abjuring,  renouncing. 
It  says  that  "Prince  Ching  and  others  have  memorialised  Us 
that  having  fulfilled  their  offices  unworthily,  they  request  to  be 
ins'tantly  dismissed";  that  Tsai  Tse  (Minister  of  Finance)  and 
others  "have  memorialised  Us"  that  as  the  State  affairs  are 
"important"  they  request  the  appointment  of  other  "competent 
officials";  Minister  of  State  Chou  Chia-lai  and  others,  have 
also  memorialised,  praying  leave  to  resign,  all  in  order  to  con- 
form with  constitutionalism,  "to  facilitate  the  administration," 
"adjust  national  principles,"  and  "rectify  the  popular  belief" 
(disabuse  the  minds  of  the  people).  "They  have  memorialised 
quite  rightly,"  says  the  Throne ;  "their  requests  are  all  hereby 
granted." 

To  stay  the  flood  of  these  "resignations"  and  dismissals, 
the  Throne  has  but  one  safety-valve — "the  Strong  Man  of 
China,"  Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  November  i,  1911,  the  Throne  ap- 
points him  President  of  the  Cabinet  or  Premier.  November  2, 
it  orders  him  to  come  to  Peking  immediately  from  Hupeh, 
where  he  has  gone  to  take  command  of  the  Imperial  forces 
facing  President  General  Li  Yuan-hung.  He  is  to  form  a 

157 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

complete  Cabinet  and  "take  measures  to  improve  the  political 
administration  quickly."  The  penitential  "danger  of  falling" 
becomes  an  act  of  reality.  The  Throne  is  rushing  to  the  "un- 
thinkable future."  It  has  received  a  memorial  by  telegraph 
from  the  insubordinate  General  Chang  Shao-tseng  of  the  2Oth 
Division  at  Lanchou,  saying  that  his  army  is  "weeping  in 
gratitude"  at  the  action  of  the  Throne  in  granting,  October 
30,  an  immediate  constitution  and  parliament  in  response  to 
the  demands  through  the  National  Assembly.  Speaking  of 
these  acts  of  compulsion  on  the  part  of  the  military,  the 
Throne  says  that  they  are  made  "with  the  object  of  supporting 
the  Imperial  Family"  and  "pacifying  the  source  of  disturb- 
ance." "The  loyal  love  for  their  country  [that  of  the  General 
and  his  troops]  is  apparent,"  it  continues,  and  adds,  "We  ap- 
preciate them  deeply,  indeed." 

General  Chang  Shao-tseng's  telegram  to  the  Throne  im- 
mediately followed  by  two  memorials  from  the  National  As- 
sembly, one  of  which  requested  that  the  Cabinet  assume  the 
responsibility  of  government  and  that  persons  of  Imperial 
blood  be  not  appointed  as  ministers,  the  second  compelling  the 
issuance  of  a  decree  transferring  the  authority  for  drawing  up 
the  constitution  to  the  National  Assembly.  Following  this  the 
Throne  now  immediately  hands  over  all  constitutional  matters 
and  the  task  of  framing  the  constitution,  from  the  Imperial 
Prince  Pu  Lun  and  other  nobles,  to  the  National  Assembly. 
The  reason  for  this  action  given  in  the  edict  is  to  "show  the 
Throne's  desire  in  sympathising  with  the  inclinations  and  dis- 
inclinations of  the  people,"  and  "in  maintaining  the  strictest 
justice  without  selfishness." 

While  these  edicts  are  being  issued  the  cities  of  Nan- 
chang  and  Hankow  have  passed  over  to  the  Revolutionists. 
The  troops  in  Shansi  have  mutinied  in  the  last  days  of  October 
and  taken  possession  of  the  pass  through  which  runs  the  rail- 
way communicating  with  the  capital,  Tai-yuan-fu.  General 
Wu  Lu-cheng,  Commander  of  the  6th  Division,  has  left  Pao- 
ting-fu,  with  3,000  men,  to  recover  the  pass  and  protect  the 
Peking-Hankow  Railway  from  the  Shansi  rebels. 

November  I,  the  excitement  in  Peking  is  very  great.     Na- 

158 


NOVEMBER    IN    PEKING 

tung,  late  Grand  Councillor,  Vice-Premier,  and  President  of 
the  Foreign  Office,  has  taken  refuge  in  the  Grand  Hotel  des 
Wagon-Lits  in  the  Legation  Quarter,  and  Li  Ching-fang,  son 
of  the  famous  Li  Hung-chang,  late  Vice-Minister  of  Communi- 
cations, has  removed  to  the  Banque  de  1'Indo-Chine.  Other 
notables  have  gone  to  Tientsin,  Tsingtao,  Dalny,  and  Japan. 

November  2,  the  Governor  of  Shansi,  his  wife  and  two 
sons  are  killed  at  the  provincial  capital,  Tai-yuan-fu,  and  his 
yamen  looted  and  burned.  The  Revolutionists  set  the  Manchu 
quarter  of  the  City  on  fire,  but  allow  most  of  the  people  to 
escape.  It  is  utterly  destroyed,  and  a  score  of  Manchus  are 
killed.  The  troops  then  loot  and  fire  all  the  shops  of  the  City, 
turning  the  main  streets  into  ruins  and  rubbish.  This  news 
now  reaches  the  Court. 

The  National  Assembly  has  become  a  Revolutionary  body 
in  concert  with  the  Revolutionary  assemblies  of  the  revolted 
provinces.  It  has  cowed  the  Throne  and  reduced  Imperial 
authority  to  a  mere  shadow.  It  has  received  the  Throne's 
edicts  conferring  upon  it  the  authority  to  draft  a  constitution, 
with  applause  and  shouts  of  "Long  live  the  country  and  the 
Emperor!"  It  has  telegraphed  to  Republican  President  Gen- 
eral Li  Yuan-hung  to  suspend  hostilities  while  it  endeavours 
to  secure  all  necessary  reforms.  It  is  working  for  a  mon- 
archy. Hankow  is  burning. 

The  National  Assembly  has  now  submitted  19  fundamental 
principles  of  the  new  constitution  to  the  Throne.  The  act  is 
an  ultimatum,  and  the  Throne  capitulates  and  at  once  issues  an 
edict  of  acceptance  of  the  articles.  "We  shall  arrange  a  day," 
says  the  Throne,  "to  swear  before  Our  ancestors  in  the  temple, 
and  to  issue  the  constitution  to  the  whole  Empire  on  yellow 
[Imperial]  papers."  It  is  a  historical  edict.  It  has  the  force 
of  an  abdication.  It  is  a  relinquishment  of  Imperial  powers. 
All  that  the  constitution  of  the  Manchu  Dynasty  hitherto  held 
sacred  and  inviolable  in  its  authority  is  given  up.  It  submits 
itself  to  parliamentary  domination  and  control. 

The  19  articles  guarantee  the  security  of  the  Dynasty  and 
hold  the  person  of  the  Emperor  to  be  sacrosanct.  His  power 
is  to  be  limited  by  the  constitution,  and  the  whole  questions 

159 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

of  the  succession,  the  constitution,  and  the  parliament  are 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  people.  Instead  of  the  "barbaric 
despotism,  guided  by  a  capricious  weakling  under  the  perni- 
cious influence  of  Palace  women  and  degraded  eunuchs,"  there 
is  to  be  a  "constitutional  monarchy,  a  parliamentary  govern- 
ment, a  responsible  cabinet  appointed  by  the  Prime  Minister, 
and  a'  parliamentary  control  of  the  budget,  including  allow- 
ances to  the  Imperial  household."  The  regulations  governing 
the  Imperial  Family  and  for  the  administration  of  the  Court 
are  to  be  drawn  up  in  conformity  with  the  constitution. 

The  National  Assembly,  holding  its  sessions  in  a  foreign 
style  building  in  the  western  part  of  the  City,  now  reaches 
the  zenith  of  its  fame.  In  a  day  it  frames  and  passes  the 
demands  from  General  Chang  Shao-tseng,  and  it  secures  the 
adherence  of  the  Throne  to  them.  It  springs  to  the  pinnacle 
of  grandeur  and  at  the  same  time  fulfils  its  destiny.  The 
world  rings  with  its  acclaim,  and  its  members  who  frame  the 
19  articles  are  compared  with  the  statesmen  of  Rome  or  of 
the  American  Revolution  because  they  have  thrown  off  a 
masterpiece. 

The  Assembly's  magnificence,  importance,  and  power 
arouse  the  apprehension  and  jealousy  of  the  revolted  republi- 
can provinces,  and  President  General  Li  Yuan-hung  telegraphs 
it  that  it  had  better  leave  the  question  of  the  future  of  China 
to  those  who  are  doing  the  fighting.  It  is  already  reduced  in 
numbers  from  196  to  117 — from  desertions  through  fear  or 
through  secession.  Hardly  more  than  sixty  members  are 
active,  and  these  include  a  part  of  the  100  appointees  of  the 
Throne.  All  of  the  Throne's  appointees  are  barred  from  de- 
bate. The  Chamber  has  gotten  to  be  a  Committee  of  State 
dominated  by  forty  or  fifty  radicals.  They  will  not  allow  even 
the  moderates  to  oppose  them,  and  they  draft  and  pass  the 
19  articles  in  a  single  sitting.  Objections  are  cried  down. 

On  account  of  the  Assembly's  obedience  to  General  Chang 
Shao-tseng,  foreign  observers  apprehend  that  it  is  intimidated 
by,  and  is  under,  the  army.  They  hope  that  the  "army  league" 
may  be  able  to  establish  a  dictator  in  Peking  to  save  the  Em- 
pire. "The  country  has  gone  mad,"  says  one,  "and  only  a 

160 


Meeting  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  Cabinet 


The  Bomb  Explosion. 
PANIC  IN  PEKING 


NOVEMBER    IN    PEKING 

strong  Dictator  will  save  it."  But  it  is  the  Republic,  and  not 
the  monarchy,  that  is  now  in  the  ascendant.  The  National 
Assembly  never  recovers  from  the  blight  of  Li  Yuan-hung's 
warning. 

The  sparks  of  Hankow  seem  falling  over  the  country, 
bursting  into  flame  in  many  places.  A  state  of  chaos  is  rapidly 
approaching.  At  the  direction  of  the  National  Assembly — or 
the  revolutionary  group  that  calls  itself  the  National  Assembly 
— the  Prince  Regent  puts  out  another  edict  in  which  the 
Throne  recognises  the  Revolutionists  as  "political  parties," 
thus  abrogating  the  Imperial  law  against  political  parties,  if 
not  against  rebels.  The  reason  given  is  in  order  "to  cultivate 
the  accomplished  faculty  to  be  employed  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Government."  The  situation  is  so  bad  that  the  Throne  apolo- 
gises for  the  military  measures  taken  to  which  it  has  been 
compelled  to  resort.  It  says  they  were  originally  intended  for 
the  protection  and  preservation  of  the  public  peace.  It  calls 
upon  the  generals  in  all  places  commanding  Imperial  troops 
to  "divine  Its  idea  by  enforcing  strict  discipline  and  prohibit- 
ing disorder  and  rapine."  They  and  the  troops  "should  not 
injure  even  a  hair,"  it  says  of  military  whose  only  business  is 
to  kill,  in  defence,  if  for  nothing  else. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  demurring  to  his  new  appointment  as 
Premier,  granted  by  a  power  and  authority  that  now  has  no 
visible  existence.  November  3,  Shanghai  passes  over  to  the 
Revolutionists  and  forms  a  republican  Government.  Eight 
other  cities  follow  its  example,  together  with  the  whole  of 
Yunnan  Province.  Continuous  fighting  proceeds  at  Hankow, 
night  and  day.  November  4,  the  National  Assembly  tele- 
graphs Yuan  Shih-k'ai  to  accept  the  Premiership  immediately. 
Two  Chinese  torpedo-boat  destroyers  on  the  Yangtse  hoist  the 
republican  flag,  and  the  Revolutionists  are  in  possession  of 
the  mouth  of  the  Yangtse. 

November  5,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  still  declines  to  accept  the 
Premiership,  and  there  is  no  tangible  head  of  government 
visible.  It  is  represented  solely  by  the  lately  resigned  minis- 
ters. Chaos  is  appreciably  near.  General  Wu  Lu-cheng  has 
been  appointed  Governor  of  Shansi  by  the  Throne  and  ordered 

161 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

to  proceed  to  his  post  at  once.  He  is  suspected  of  conspiracy 
with  General  Chang  Shao-tseng  to  turn  over  the  province  of 
Shansi  to  the  Revolutionists  and  march  on  Peking.  The  Na- 
tional Assembly  is  panic-stricken  and  is  considering  the  advis- 
ability of  dissolving.  The  Imperialist  army  becomes  paralysed 
just  at  a  time  when  it  could  take  Wuchang.  Kiangsu,  Che- 
kiang,  and  Fukien  declare  independence. 

November  6,  the  Throne  is  seeking  emergency  loans  from 
the  four  financial  syndicates  of  Great  Britain,  France,  Ger- 
many, and  America,  or  other  sources.  The  Boxer  indemnity 
instalment  for  November  has  not  been  paid.  The  national 
treasury  and  the  war-chest  are  depleted,  and  the  National 
Assembly  declines  to  approve  the  Regent's  plan  for  loans. 
Amoy  falls.  In  its  despair  the  Throne  issues  an  edict  applaud- 
ing the  virtues  of  General  Chang  Shao-tseng,  the  revolutionary 
who  forced  the  Throne  to  its  knees.  Appreciably  successful 
with  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  it  looks  for  heroes  in  other  directions. 
Having  belauded  General  Chang,  it  appoints  him  a  Commis- 
sioner to  mollify  the  revolutionaries  in  the  South  by  convey- 
ing the  Throne's  "benign  intentions"  and  restoring  the  revo- 
lutionaries to  loyalty. 

The  Throne  has  now  reached  the  conviction  that  the  revolu- 
tion cannot  be  suppressed  by  force,  and  the  Court  is  paralysed 
with  fear.  Chingkiang  City  falls.  Shaohsing  City  falls.  The 
Throne  instructs  the  Viceroy  of  Nanking,  Chang  Jen-chun, 
not  to  oppose  the  reformers  and  revolutionaries.  November 
7,  the  foreign  Powers,  who  have  been  landing  troops  at  Tien- 
tsin, Canton,  and  Shanghai  on  occasion,  now  take  effective 
measures  for  the  protection  of  their  citizens  and  subjects  in 
China.  They  hold  large  bodies  of  troops  along  the  seaboard 
ready  to  send  to  Peking  and  other  inland  places.  The  Lega- 
tions consider  the  end  of  the  Dynasty  imminent,  with  no  hope 
of  saving  even  a  nominal  Throne.  The  National  Assembly 
now  facing  a  crisis  owing  to  the  protests  of  various  provincial 
assemblies  against  its  measures  and  action  receives  word  that 
General  Wu  Lu-cheng  has  been  assassinated  and  adjourns, 
never  to  meet  again  as  a  body  with  any  appreciable  authority. 
Its  power  is  broken. 

162 


NOVEMBER    IN    PEKING 

General  Wu  Lu-cheng  reached  the  mud  village  of  Shih- 
chia-chuang  in  the  flat  plain  of  South-western  Chihli  and  was 
asleep  in  his  tent  when  forty  soldiers  rushed  in  past  the  guards, 
shot  and  beheaded  him.  "On  hearing  the  firing,"  said  the 
Commander  of  the  6th  Division,  "I  called  the  other  officers 
and  accompanied  by  a  crowd  of  my  men  ran  to  the  scene.  We 
captured  thirty  Manchus  belonging  to  the  3rd  Battalion  of  the 
1st  Division  who  had  committed  the  outrage." 

On  account  of  the  commanding  position  of  General  Chang 
Shao-tseng,  "the  man  on  horseback,"  this  assassination  thrilled 
Peking  and  the  onlookers  at  this  drama.  "The  3rd  Battalion 
looks  like  fighting,"  says  the  Commander  of  the  6th  Division ; 
"we  are  making  preparations." 

General  Chang  Shao-tseng  declines  the  appointment  to  go 
to  the  Yangtse  provinces  to  conciliate  the  people.  November 
8,  the  Court  in  Peking  is  preparing  for  flight.  It  is  passing 
into  one  throe  after  another.  The  Manchu  troops  responsible 
for  the  murder  of  General  Wu  Lu-cheng  are  en  route  return- 
ing to  the  Capital.  The  Legations  are  being  put  on  a  defence 
footing.  Fighting  has  commenced  at  Nanking  and  an  upris- 
ing around  Canton.  The  largest  exodus  from  Peking  since 
the  beginning  has  started.  The  Manchus,  including  members 
of  the  Imperial  Family  as  well  as  numerous  Chinese,  are  send- 
ing sealed  boxes  of  treasure  into  the  Legation  Quarter. 
Throughout  the  day  bullion  and  fine  objects  come  to  the  banks 
and  the  houses  of  foreign  residents.  Compradors  of  foreign 
firms  are  making  small  fortunes  out  of  storage  charges.  All 
day  long  special  trains  are  run  to  Tientsin. 

The  Revolution  in  its  most  spectacular  aspects  has  reached 
Peking.  November  is  the  month  of  the  high  tide  of  flight  of 
dignitaries.  They  leave  their  houses  in  panic,  carrying  only 
a  few  belongings,  and  take  refuge  in  some  foreign  house  in 
the  Legation  Quarter  until  the  trains  leave,  when  they  dis- 
appear in  the  direction  of  Tientsin.  Only  servants  are  left 
behind,  or  some  member  of  the  family  to  forward  valuables 
and  watch  over  abandoned  hearthstones.  Orientals  more  than 
Occidentals  seem  animal-like  in  their  panic  and  bolt  for  no 
visible  reason.  They  fly  from  instinctive  fear  or  delusion. 

163 


Perhaps  it  is  because  of  the  imperfection  of  communications 
and  lack  of  knowledge.  Foreigners  witness  their  flights  with 
wonder  and  amazement,  and  conclude  that  the  dangers  to  the 
natives  are  something  a  foreigner  cannot  fathom. 

Those  who  cannot  or  will  not  flee  disguise  themselves  or 
prepare  some  defence  of  their  houses.  Manchu  women  wear- 
ing the  showy  head-dress  which  since  the  Manchu  conquest 
has  been  a  picturesque  feature  of  Peking  life,  change  their 
fashion  of  hair-dressing.  However,  as  they  are  further  dis- 
tinguished by  their  natural  feet,  some  of  them  seek  to  dis- 
guise their  identity  by  shoes  peculiarly  constructed,  so  as  to 
give  their  feet  the  appearance  of  being  bound  like  the  feet 
of  the  Chinese. 

A  few  vacant  rooms  and  houses  in  the  Legation  Quarter 
not  hitherto  occupied  by  native  refugees  are  now  filled  with 
the  wives  and  children  of  officials.  Some  of  the  women  are 
putting  on  foreign  dress. 

There  are  27,500  soldiers  and  police  to  protect  the  Capital, 
of  which  at  least  20,000  are  Manchus.  By  night  these  parade 
through  the  City.  The  best-drilled  body  of  troops,  they  make 
a  fine  appearance  in  their  light  grey  uniforms  and  give  confi- 
dence. The  people  stand  outside  their  shops,  gaze  upon  the 
soldiers,  and  wonder  about  everything.  Out  of  their  blank 
minds  come  fears.  They  start  rumours  after  they  return  home 
or  go  back  into  their  shops.  Each  day  they  say  there  will  be 
an  outbreak  in  twenty-four  hours. 

Although  the  people  are  friendly  to  foreigners,  the  latter 
are  coming  into  the  Legation  Quarter  for  security.  The  For- 
eign Office,  which  seems  to  be  endowed  with  immortality  and 
is  held  in  place  by  the  presence  of  the  foreign  Powers  and 
cannot  escape,  is  annoyed  at  rumours  respecting  the  flight  of 
the  Court,  the  suicides  of  princes  and  kidnapping  of  the  little 
Emperor,  and  asks  the  Press  to  deny  these  stories.  The  Lung 
Yu  Empress  Dowager  and  the  Emperor  are  in  the  Winter  Pal- 
ace as  usual,  and  Prince  Chun,  the  Regent,  and  father  of  the 
Emperor,  is  either  there  or  staying  quietly  in  his  house,  be- 
tween the  Drum  Tower  and  the  Teh  Shang  Gate. 

The  Revolutionists  at  Wuchang  are  chuckling  over  Peking's 

164 


NOVEMBER    IN    PEKING 

discomfiture  and  are  advertising  it  to  the  world  in  their  re- 
publican papers.  "We  know  that  the  troops  stationed  in  Pe- 
king to  protect  the  Manchus  are  few  and  feeble,"  say  the  re- 
publican editors.  "Chang  Kuei-ti  is  in  the  Imperial  City,  but 
half  of  his  men  are  of  no  use,  and  Prince  Ching  has  sum- 
moned him  there  for  the  mere  purpose  of  protecting  his  own 
retreat  with  his  family  to  Mongolia.  Since  the  beginning  of 
revolt  the  Imperial  bodyguard  has  been  deserting,  so  that  not 
more  than  half  of  the  Manchu  soldiers  remain,  while  from 
these  Heaven  has  taken  their  senses,  and  they  have  no  inten- 
tion of  resisting. 

"The  Manchus  learned  that  we  have  slaughtered  a  great 
many  of  that  tribe,  and  they  have  planned  to  drive  out  all  the 
Chinese  from  the  Imperial  City  with  sword  and  rifle.  There- 
fore the  Chinese  officials  great  and  small  are  fleeing.  Some 
50,000  or  60,000  Chinese  are  already  fled,  and  the  hotels  at 
Tientsin  and  Shanghai  are  overcrowded  with  them.  Great 
ministers  and  members  of  the  Privy  Council  have  disappeared 
from  the  Capital  and  no  one  knows  where  they  have  gone. 

"The  Manchu  usurper  in  Peking  seeing  the  spread  of 
revolt  through  every  province  and  that  he  has  lost  the  people's 
heart,  is  unable  to  do  anything  but  issue  edicts  about  constitu- 
tions, cabinets,  sovereignties,  and  regulations.  He  wants  all 
fighting  to  be  stopped  and  matters  to  be  discussed,  but  it  is  a 
mere  pretence.  What  we  have  got  to  do  is  to  stick  to  our  reso- 
lution and  steadily  advance.  There  is  not  much  likelihood  that 
anyone  will  be  deceived  by  the  Imperial  claptrap." 

The  Press  throughout  the  country  no  longer  calls  the  de- 
crees "edicts"  or  "sacred  edicts,"  but  Cabinet  decrees  or  Man- 
chu decrees,  and  does  not  use  the  reign  date  of  Hsuan  Tung, 
3rd  year,  but  uses  the  cycle  date,  not  unlike  the  French  revolu- 
tionaries, entirely  ignoring  the  little  Emperor.  The  revolu- 
tionaries have  become  so  bold  that  they  approach  the  foreign 
superintendent  of  the  Imperial  Bureau  of  Engraving  and 
Printing,  controlled  by  the  Minister  of  Finance,  and  ask  him 
to  design  the  flag  of  the  Republic.  The  superintendent  re- 
fers them  to  the  Board  of  Finance.  A  revolutionary  member 
of  the  National  Assembly  from  Shansi  seeks  advice  on  the 

165 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

Republic  in  the  Legation  Quarter,  where  an  American  tells 
him:  "Here,  now,  I  can  agree  with  you  about  reforms,  but 
not  with  respect  to  a  Republic  for  China.  I  cannot  see  what 
you  want  to  go  so  far  for :  China  is  not  ready  for  a  Republic. 
It  would  be  better  to  aim  first  at  a  monarchy." 

"Well,  you  don't  understand,"  says  the  Assemblyman. 
"We  don't  so  much  care  what  the  form  of  government  is,  but 
the  Manchus  must  go.  We  want  a  Republic  because  it  gets 
rid  of  the  Manchus.  We  will  get  rid  of  the  Manchus." 

The  Forbidden  City  is  being  prepared  for  a  state  of  siege, 
and  those  members  of  the  Imperial  Clan,  the  eight  "iron- 
capped"  princes  and  their  families,  or  what  is  left  of  them 
after  the  exodus,  who  are  entitled  to  refuge  therein,  are  mak- 
ing preparations  to  take  advantage  of  their  privileges.  Prince 
Ching  states  that  Peking  will  not  be  defended  against  the  in- 
vasion of  Chinese  troops.  The  exodus  from  the  City  reaches 
150,000,  according  to  foreign  estimates,  in  a  single  day. 

The  Throne  has  seen  nothing  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  who  has 
gone  farther  and  farther  away,  until  he  is  at  Hsiao-kan,  only 
twenty-five  miles  from  Hankow,  and  even  Nie-kou,  twelve  and 
one-half  kilometres  away,  and  is  in  touch  with  the  Revolu- 
tionists. On  hearing  of  his  arrival  to  open  peace  negotiations, 
President  General  Li  Yuan-hung  makes  the  announcement 
that  his  five  generals  commanding  the  revolutionary  forces 
have  unanimously  agreed  to  ask  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  to  become 
President  of  the  first  Republic  of  China. 

The  Throne  tries  to  depend  upon  General  Chang  Shao- 
tseng,  whom  it  is  trying  to  win  over  by  cajolery.  Secretly 
and  anonymously,  certain  influences  in  the  Imperial  Clan  are, 
threatening  him  with  assassination.  Under  these  circumstan- 
ces and  to  further  complicate  matters  and  bring  about  chaos 
in  the  expectations  of  Chinese  and  foreigners  alike,  Gen- 
eral Chang  Chao-tseng,  November  8,  tries  to  resign  from 
the  army.  He  is  not  permitted  to  resign,  but  is  given  "sick 
leave."  November  13,  he  goes  to  Tientsin,  arriving  with  a 
guard  of  thirty  men.  These  men  clear  the  station  platform  and 
form  an  alley  through  which  he  hurries  from  the  train  to  a 
carriage,  and  goes  thus  guarded  and  takes  refuge  in  the 

166 


NOVEMBER    IN    PEKING 

Japanese  Concession.  He  refuses  to  go  to  Peking  to  renew 
his  allegiance,  and  the  last  heard  of  him  he  is  reported  shot 
at  in  an  abortive  attempt  at  assassination,  November  15,  pre- 
sumably for  deserting  his  post. 

There  is  no  Chinese  general  in  the  North  upon  whom  the 
Throne  can  rely.  With  Generals  Chang  Shao-tseng  and  Wu 
Lu-cheng  gone,  there  are  but  three  other  names  anywhere 
heard,  those  of  General  Feng  Kuo-chang  who  has  taken  Han- 
kow and  is  fighting  for  Hanyang,  General  Tuan  Chi-jui  his 
associate,  and  that  of  General  Chang  Hsun  at  Nanking.  But 
they  are  600  miles  away.  All  agree  that  China's  destiny  is  in 
the  hands  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  who  has  not  yet  accepted  the 
Premiership  of  the  Empire  and  has  been  offered  the  Presi- 
dency of  the  Republic. 

November  9,  the  city  of  Foochow  falls,  and  the  province 
of  Kuangtung  declares  a  Republic  at  Canton.  Anking  City 
passes  over  to  the  Revolutionists,  followed  by  Swatow,  Che- 
foo,  and  the  province  of  Kueichou.  For  its  satisfaction  the 
Throne  has  the  capture  of  Hankow,  standing  out  as  a  horrible 
but  convincing  victory  in  an  Empire  of  revolt.  Six  hundred 
miles  away  on  the  Peking-Hankow  Railway  is  its  victorious 
and  blood-stained  army  of  less  than  20,000  men  (not  more 
than  4,000  or  5,000  are  in  line  of  battle),  with  their  Field 
Marshal,  Premier  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  surrounded  by  no  one 
knows  how  many  millions  of  indifferent  or  hostile  Chinese. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  being  met  merely  with  arguments  from 
President  General  Li  Yuan-hung,  to  persuade  him  to  join  the 
Republic,  leaves  Hsiao-kan,  or  Nie-kou,  in  the  vicinity  of 
Hankow,  November  9,  for  Peking.  Before  leaving  he  tele- 
graphs Prince  Ching:  "The  outlook  is  decidedly  gloomy.  I 
do  not  expect  to  be  able  to  effect  the  desired  pacification. 
Moreover,  my  health  is  so  feeble  that  I  am  unable  to  come 
to  Peking  and  assume  the  post  of  Premier." 

"It  seemed  as  if  the  last  pr«p  of  the  Throne  had  given 
way,"  said  an  observer  in  Peking.  The  best  that  could  be 
hoped  from  the  negotiations  at  this  moment  was  that  the 
country  might  be  divided  at  the  Yangtse  River  into  a  Repub- 
lic on  the  South,  with  a  monarchy  on  the  North. 

167 


CHAPTER  XVI 
THE  REPUBLIC  AT   THE  GATES   OF   PEKING 

THE  whole  Empire  seems  to  have  rested,  November  IO, 
to  permit  of  a  little  panic  on  the  Peking-Kalgan  Rail- 
way, where  the  members  of  the  Staff  abandoned  their 
posts.  This  is  the  foremost  event  chronicled  for  that  day. 

About  the  only  hope  discernible  in  Peking  in  the  first  days 
of  November  is  that  expressed  by  a  few  optimistic  officials 
November  n  to  the  effect  that  the  Wuchang  army  will  be 
won  over,  leaving  the  irreconcilable  partisans  of  Sun  Yat-sen 
the  only  enemies,  as  before  the  outbreak.  This  day  also  the 
Throne  is  assailed  by  an  appeal  from  Wu  Ting-fang,  carrying 
the  full  force  of  the  Shanghai  Republic  behind  it,  to  abdicate. 
It  reminds  the  Throne  of  the  atrocities  and  inhumanities  in 
which  the  Imperialist  army  indulged  upon  capturing  Hankow. 

The  details  from  Hankow  have  now  reached  all  Peking, 
and  these  great  events  transpiring  in  the  heart  of  China,  have 
shaken  from  the  declining  National  Assembly  one  of  the  last 
echoes  of  its  power  and  authority.  November  12  it  is  heard 
to  demand  capital  punishment  for  those  Imperialists  respon- 
sible for  the  Hankow  massacres.  It  appears  for  the  moment 
to  have  revived,  but  its  star  is  rapidly  dimming.  On  the  same 
day  the  province  of  Shantung  declares  its  independence,  and 
its  highest  officials  take  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Shantung 
Independency. 

Again,  "thousands  and  thousands"  are  in  flight  from  Pe- 
king. The  Republic  is  now  but  150  miles  distant.  It  has  con- 
quered the  most  populous  of  all  China's  provinces,  Shantung 
on  the  South,  the  sacred  soil  from  which  Confucius  sprung 
and  which  holds  his  holy  ashes, — Confucius,  the  apostle  of 
Imperialism,  whose  moral  system  with  an  almost  supernatural 
authority  conquered  the  Chinese  race  and  rendered  it  subser- 
vient to  its  superiors,  and  made  the  Emperor  the  "Son  of 

168 


THE  REPUBLIC  AT  THE  GATES  OF  PEKING 

Heaven."  The  people  have  lifted  the  disciple  Mencius  above 
his  teacher,  Confucius.  The  revolutionaries  and  republicans 
have  taken  Mencius  the  disciple  for  their  lawgiver,  because 
Mencius  taught  the  divinity  of  the  people  and  their  supremacy 
to  the  Emperor. 

The  Republic  is  in  Shansi  on  the  West,  and  in  twenty-four 
hours  it  will  reach  the  Great  Wall  on  the  East,  but  200  miles 
away,  following  the  very  line  of  march  taken  by  the  Manchu 
conquerors  of  the  seventeenth  century  themselves. 

What  November  will  bring  forth  is  the  uppermost  thought. 
It  is  not  yet  half  over,  but  all  signs  and  sounds  indicate  the 
end.  There  are  already  six  republics  and  independencies  in 
China:  the  Szechuan  Independency,  the  Republic  of  China  at 
Wuchang,  the  Republic  of  Kuang-tung  at  Canton,  the  Re- 
public of  China  at  Shanghai,  the  Independency  of  Yunnan  and 
Kueichou,  and  the  Independency  of  Shantung.  The  Republic 
at  Shanghai  has  issued  a  manifesto  dated  November  n,  ex- 
horting the  provinces  to  unite  and  consummate  the  Republic. 
It  now  sends  out  telegraphic  invitations  to  all  the  seceding 
provinces  to  send  delegates  for  a  National  Assembly  at  Shang- 
hai. All  the  Chinese  war-vessels  at  Hankow  withdraw  their 
support  from  the  Imperialist  army  and  start  down  the  river. 
Three  cruisers  are  already  flying  the  white  flag  of  the  Re- 
public. 

November  13,  sees  the  arrival  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  at  Peking, 
where  he  is  greeted  with  President  General  Li  Yuan-hung's 
rejection  on  the  part  of  the  Republic  of  China  of  the  offer 
which  he  has  made  to  them  on  behalf  of  the  Throne,  of  am- 
nesty, constitutional  government,  and  a  share  of  the  offices. 
Over  against  this  the  Throne  greets  him  with  one  of  its  best 
edicts,  appointing  him  to  the  command  of  all  troops  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  Capital.  It  is  a  forlorn  hope  of  the  Throne 
that  it  can  thus  rally  about  itself  the  Northern  armies,  of 
which  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  once  the  leader  and  idol.  Man- 
churia furnishes  the  answer  to  this  move  by  the  Throne  de- 
claring its  autonomy  and  independence  of  the  struggle  within 
the  Great  Wall.  Revolution  has  reached  the  Great  Wall. 

With  all  his  "enfeebled  health,"  his  "rheumatism  of  the 

'  169 


leg,"  his  failure  to  reconcile  Li  Yuan-hung  and  the  estranged 
provinces  on  the  Yangtse,  almost  smothered  in  appointments, 
and  loaded  with  honours,  responsibilities,  and  the  acclaim  of 
Europe  and  America,  pursued  by  the  jeers  of  the  Cantonese, 
the  threats  of  the  Shanghai  Republic,  and  the  warnings  from 
Wu-chang,  this  single  strong  man  appearing  above  275,000,000 
of  Mongolian  heads,  some  say  400,000,000,  has  reached  Peking. 
He  is  associated  in  the  minds  of  men  of  Europe  and  America 
with  five  other  men,  the  theatres  of  whose  achievements  form 
a  circle  around  the  globe :  the  American  Washington,  the 
French  Napoleon,  the  Greek  Alexander,  the  Mongol  Ghengis, 
and  the  Japanese  Mutsuhito. 

He  comes  with  2,000  troops.  The  public  is  only  impressed 
by  the  physical  spectacle,  and  from  the  shops  and  intersecting 
streets  to  which  it  is  pushed  back  by  the  Manchu  soldiers,  in 
packed,  silent  crowds,  it  stands  in  awe  more  of  this  great 
man's  escort  and  the  spectacle  of  his  procession  to  the  temple 
where  he  is  to  stay,  than  of  the  man  himself.  The  foreign 
Ministers  are  under  the  impression  that  his  arrival  has  given 
a  steadying  effect.  It  is  a  sensation  which  they  themselves 
feel.  The  only  possible  effect  which  it  can  have  upon  the  peo- 
ple must  be  exerted  through  the  soldiers,  which  is  the  only 
influence  that  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  has  ever  possessed  over  the 
people.  His  maintenance  of  order  in  the  metropolitan  prov- 
ince of  Chihli  in  the  past,  as  in  Shantung,  has  corresponded 
to  the  number  of  heads  he  has  cut  off  and  the  decision  and 
rapidity  with  which  they  fell.  It  is  the  custom  of  the  Empire. 

November  14,  the  day  following  his  arrival  in  Peking, 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai  confers  with  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager, 
the  Prince  Regent,  and  Prince  Ching  respecting  his  status  in 
the  Empire.  He  has  been  appointed  Premier  by  the  Throne, 
elected  Premier  by  the  National  Assembly,  and  November  9 
confirmed  by  the  Throne  "in  accordance  with  the  8th  clause  of 
the  Statute  of  the  Constitution."  He  goes  to  the  Palace  in 
the  Forbidden  City  in  response  to  a  summons  which  he  has 
been  expecting,  but  he  gives  no  definite  reply  as  to  whether  he 
will  accept — he  must  fully  consult  the  Assembly  and  leaders. 
It  is  in  the  early  morning  hours.  The  Lung  Yu  Empress 

170 


THE  REPUBLIC  AT  THE  GATES  OF  PEKING 

Dowager  shows  signs  of  weeping.  The  Regent  is  white  with 
fear,  his  moroseness  and  intolerance  are  gone.  He  is  uneasy 
before  Yuan  Shih-k'ai;  he  has  kuai-ed  (taken  offence  at) 
Yuan  in  Cabinet  councils  in  the  past,  and  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  in 
exile  has  said  of  the  young  man,  "What  can  you  do  with  one 
like  that  ?"  It  is  the  Regent's  hour  of  humiliation.  The  Lung 
Yu  Empress  Dowager,  and  therefore  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  ignore 
him  in  this  meeting  under  the  shadow  of  the  Imperial  ruin 
which  he  has  largely  made. 

While  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  hesitating,  the  Throne  puts  out 
two  decrees  with  his  sanction.  The  first  meets  the  action  of 
the  Republic  of  China  at  Wuchang  and  that  of  the  Republic 
at  Shanghai,  in  calling  for  delegates  to  form  governments. 
The  Throne  calls  for  representatives  to  meet  in  Peking,  "to 
decide  the  nation's  policy  and  to  tranquilise  the  people's 
minds."  It  seeks  to  forestall  the  Republics  in  their  conven- 
tions. It  is  not  a  long  edict  but  an  urgent  one,  in  which  the 
viceroys  and  governors  are  commanded  to  instruct  scholars 
and  gentry  to  quickly  nominate  three  to  five  persons  from  each 
province,  "well  known  and  respected,  conversant  in  politics 
and  rich  in  experience,"  to  come  at  once  to  Peking  for  a 
public  conference.  The  situation  has  become  so  critical,  ac- 
cording to  this  edict,  since  the  rising  erf  Wuchang,  that  it  in- 
volves the  life  or  death  of  the  nation,  and  the  little  five-and- 
one-half-years-old  Emperor  is  made  to  say  that  the  Throne 
"being  of  fatherly  inclination  does  not  hold  fixed  views. 
Therefore  it  is  expedient  to  obtain  at  once  opinions  from  the 
subjects  in  order  to  decide  means  to  avoid  a  collapse."  It 
seeks  to  make  the  most  of  having  secured  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's 
presence  in  Peking.  It  seeks  to  regrasp  at  least  the  semblance 
of  its  ancient  exalted  state  by  putting  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  forward 
as  a  Government,  against  the  republican  pretenders. 

In  its  second  edict  of  November  14  the  Throne  does  not 
wait  for  the  representatives  whom  it  called  for  in  its  first  edict, 
but  appoints  Condolence  Commissioners  for  the  twelve  prov- 
inces that  have  revolted.  They  are  to  proceed  with  dispatch 
to  their  different  districts  "to  pardon,  condole,  persuade,  and 
lead  the  people,"  and  to  make  known  the  Throne's  principles 

171 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

of  carrying  out  political  reform.  The  Throne  in  this  edict 
fears  that  the  people  of  all  classes  are  not  able  to  know  the 
facts.  It  has  "repeatedly  promulgated  its  political  administra- 
tions, conciliating  all  in  order  to  save  the  nation."  But  it 
considers  it  expedient  at  this  moment  of  disturbance  to  send 
"well-known  and  honoured  officials,"  "to  proclaim  the  virtue 
of  the  Exalted  [the  Emperor],  and  to  ventilate  the  desires  of 
the  lowly  [the  people]." 

As  the  Throne  closes  its  struggle  against  anarchy  Novem- 
ber 14,  its  tear-stained  eyes  are  turned  to  Jehol  the  old  sum- 
mer Capital  and  its  chosen  refuge  in  case  of  flight.  The 
journalists  who  gather  in  Peking  to  watch  the  decay  of  China 
have  called  this  the  climax.  Anxious  for  the  security  of  Je- 
hol, it  appoints  Hsi  Lang,  the  Manchu  ex-Viceroy  of  Man- 
churia, to  take  charge  there. 

Alongside  this  decree  published  in  the  official  gazette  is 
an  expression  of  thanks  from  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  for  his  appoint- 
ment as  Premier.  Following  his  conferences  of  the  early 
morning  of  November  14,  he  has  accepted  this  appointment. 
In  reply  to  his  anxiety  as  to  its  nature  and  the  scope  of  his 
powers,  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  says  she  had  relied 
upon  the  Prince  Regent,  who  has  been  unable  to  direct  affairs, 
and  instead  has  muddled  everything.  There  is  now  no  longer 
any  hope  of  the  Prince  Regent  being  able  to  restore  order, 
and  she  wishes  to  place  everything  in  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  hands. 
She  has  no  reservations  to  make,  she  says,  but  will  do  what- 
ever he  advises. 

The  effect  of  this  is  to  determine  Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  Such 
an  appeal  cannot  be  resisted :  these  are  the  convictions  of 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai  himself.  The  views  of  Prince  Ching  and  the 
Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  are  that  the  country  has  reached 
such  a  state  of  disorder  as  would  require  months  for  the  peo- 
ple to  settle  down,  and  that  at  least  during  this  period  the 
Throne  will  have  to  give  way  entirely.  The  course  to  be 
pursued  under  the  Premiership  is  that  of  conciliation.  This  is 
disclosed  in  the  two  edicts  of  November  14.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
confirms  it  by  an  official  statement,  November  15,  to  the  effect 
that  he  will  form  a  cabinet  immediately  and  endeavour  to 

172 


Yung-lu  Empress  Dowager 


Military-  Council 


Arrest  of  a  Bomb  Suspect  in  Peking      The  Chinese  Minister  at  St.  Petersburg 
PANIC  IN  PEKING  (Continued.) 


THE  REPUBLIC  AT  THE  GATES  OF  PEKING 

carry  on  the  Government  with  the  support  of  as  many  provin- 
ces as  he  can  unite  together,  allowing  the  remainder  their  own 
course  for  the  time  being,  while  trying  to  win  back  their  alle- 
giance gradually. 

This  policy  is  now  begun  by  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  and  the 
Throne  by  consenting  to  Governor  Sun  Pao-chi  allowing  him- 
self to  be  elected  President  at  Shantung,  when  the  famous 
telegram  is  sent:  "Watch  the  Germans."  But  the  policy  is 
doomed  in  its  inception.  Before  the  close  of  November  15, 
the  Premiership  and  the  Throne  receive  a  Memorial  from  the 
Chihli  Provincial  Assembly  at  Tientsin  calling  for  a  Republic. 
The  Provincial  Assembly  is  acting  under  the  direct  influence 
of  Shanghai.  The  Tientsin  members  leave  Peking,  and  the 
National  Assembly  now  virtually  dissolves. 

Nanking  has  become  a  battle-ground  threatening  to  eclipse 
Hankow,  which  the  foreign  Press  describes  as  an  "Inferno." 
November  16,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  names  a  Cabinet  representative 
of  the  country  in  revolution.  He  appoints  reformers  both  re- 
publicans and  monarchists,  a  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  and 
a  Minister  of  Army  from  Kuangtung  Province,  a  Minister  of 
Finance  from  Chihli,  a  Minister  of  Communications  from  An- 
huei,  a  Minister  of  Navy  from  Fukien,  a  Minister  of  Justice 
from  Chekiang,  a  Minister  of  Agriculture  from  Kiangsu,  a 
Minister  of  Interior  from  Honan,  and  a  Minister  of  Educa- 
tion from  Kuangsi.  Kuangtung,  the  Canton  province,  is 
represented  by  five  appointments  in  this  Cabinet,  Chihli  has 
two  and  Chekiang  two,  Hupeh  has  none. 

The  great  reformer,  Liang  Chi-chiao  of  Kuangtung,  is  ap- 
pointed to  the  Board  of  Justice  as  Vice-Minister.  The  curious 
appointments  do  not  give  confidence.  Their  announcement 
seems  to  be  a  signal  for  flight  among  those  appointees  who  are 
in  Peking.  The  newly  named  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
Liang  Tun-yen,  is  in  Europe.  Liang  Chi-chiao  has  made  the 
first  visit  to  China  since  1898.  Having  been  pardoned  by  the 
general  law  of  amnesty,  he  has  journeyed  to  Mukden  in  Man- 
churia, which  he  reaches  November  14,  but  returns  to  Dalny. 
He  cannot  believe  that  he  has  been  really  appointed  to  the 
Ministry  of  Justice  and  says  that  he  would  not  think  of  accept- 

173 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

ing  it.  "Whether  true  or  rumour,  I  will  never  accept  the 
appointment,"  he  says.  Chang  Chien  appointed  Minister  of 
Agriculture  signed  with  Wu  Ting-fang  the  demand  for  the 
Throne's  abdication.  But  he  has  only  just  been  appointed 
Condolence  Commissioner  for  the  province  of  Kiangsu,  at 
Shanghai,  and  is  kept  busy  telegraphing  his  refusals  to  Pe- 
king. It  gives  him  ample  opportunity  to  express  his  views, 
which  he  takes  advantage  of,  recapitulating  past  events,  scor- 
ing the  Government  for  scoffing  at  public  opinion  in  the  past, 
and  reminding  it  that  it  has  rejected  his  advice  hitherto.  He 
calls  attention  to  the  atrocities  of  the  Imperialists  at  Hankow 
following  upon  the  heels  of  the  penitential  decree,  as  well  as 
atrocities  committed  at  Nanking  when  there  was  no  state  of 
war.  With  respect  to  his  appointment  as  Condolence  Com- 
missioner, he  states  that  all,  both  Chinese  and  foreigners,  find 
the  inhuman  acts  committed  under  General  Yin  Chang  at  Han*- 
kow  hateful  without  exception.  "What  condolence  can  I 
offer  to  the  masses?  What  virtue  can  I  ascribe  to  the 
Throne?"  he  asks,  and  then  advises  the  reigning  house  of 
the  Manchus  to  admit  the  necessities  of  the  times  by  acknowl- 
edging the  Republic.  It  could  thus  give  him  some  footing  to 
go  upon  in  its  favour.  "If  the  recognition  is  -withheld  longer 
I  cannot  tell  what  will  be  the  ultimate  fate  of  the  Dynasty's 
ancestral  temple."  "I  decline  the  Ministership  of  Agriculture, 
Industry,  and  Commerce,  also,"  says  he,  "because  the  people 
have  no  shelter  even  with  which  to  cover  their  heads,  much 
less  any  capacity  to  pursue  industry." 

While  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  cabinet  is  breaking  down,  Presi- 
dent General  Li  Yuan-hung  informs  the  consuls  of  the  foreign 
Powers  at  Hankow  that  the  republican  states  have  elected 
their  representatives  to  the  Capital  at  Wuchang  and  asks  in- 
ternational recognition  of  the  republican  federation.  Wu 
Ting-fang  claiming  to  be  Director  of  Foreign  Affairs  in  the 
Republic  is  also  demanding  recognition  for  the  Republic,  but 
it  is  not  clear  whom  he  means. 

Twenty-four  hours  were  all  that  were  needed  to  tarnish 
the  hope  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  ability  to  administer  government 
under  a  Cabinet  from  Peking.  His  expressed  views  were  that 

'74 


THE  REPUBLIC  AT  THE  GATES  OF  PEKING 

it  was  better  for  China  to  retain  the  Throne  under  a  limited 
monarchy,  but  the  Revolutionists  were  determined  upon  mak- 
ing no  compromise.  In  a  belated  reply  to  General  Chang 
Shao-tseng  at  Lanchou,  which  General  Chang  never  received, 
President  General  Li  Yuan-hung  answers  proposals  for  an 
armistice  and  the  consideration  of  establishing  a  monarchical 
system  with  these  words :  "The  overthrow  of  the  Government 
is  the  only  conclusion."  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  alternative,  in  fact, 
is  that  the  question  of  China's  future  government  is  too  vital 
to  be  determined  by  a  single  man,  but  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
many,  and  whether  it  is  to  be  republican  or  monarchical  should 
be  decided  by  the  delegates  from  the  provinces  who  have  been 
summoned  to  Peking. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  has  reached  a  complete  understanding  with 
the  Manchu  Clan  through  Prince  Ching  to  abandon  all  de- 
structive activities  and  to  pursue  constructive  activities  on  the 
basis  of  the  19  articles  of  the  new  constitution.  There  is  to  be 
no  more  fighting  by  Imperialists  except  in  defence.  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai  is  to  recover  the  allegiance  of  the  army  and  to  persuade 
the  provinces.  He  is  the  only  man  in  North  China  with 
aplomb.  With  his  Cabinet  resigning  and  the  opponents  of  the 
Dynasty  still  bent  on  destructive  activities  and  the  determina- 
tion to  overthrow  and  not  build  up  in  Peking,  while  success- 
fully constructing  republican  cabinets  and  assemblies,  he  pro- 
ceeds to  the  business  of  the  most  difficult  problems  of  govern- 
ment under  revolution. 

He  must  borrow  money.  Including  the  Lung  Yu  Empress 
Dowager's  gifts  from  her  private  hoard,  there  is  less  than 
taels  4,000,000  in  the  Imperial  treasury.  The  sums  required 
are  those  necessary  to  pay  the  army.  The  first  thing  is  to 
regain  the  army's  confidence,  and  money  alone  can  accomplish 
that. 

General  Chang  Shao-tseng's  successor,  General  Lan  Tien- 
wei,  is  not  a  monarchist  like  his  predecessor,  but  a  republican, 
and  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  glad  to  get  rid  of  him  at  Lanchou, 
when  he,  like  General  Chang  Shao-tseng,  flees.  He  takes 
refuge  in  Dalny,  where  he  prepares  to  lead  the  revolt  in 
Manchuria.  It  is  meet  that  the  Throne  quickly  swear  before 

175 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

the  tablets  of  its  ancestors  to  the  19  articles  imposed  upon  it 
by  General  Chang  Shao-tseng  through  the  National  Assembly, 
and  November  19  it  announces  by  edict  that  it  will  do  this 
November  26.  The  ancestors  are  presumed  to  know  nothing 
yet  as  to  what  has  happened  in  the  world.  Only  an  accident 
and  a  calamity,  a  succession,  or  a  diminution  of  the  dynastic 
heritage,  or  some  great  achievement,  ever  causes  the  Throne 
to  thus  disturb  the  august  dead. 

The  officials  of  all  the  yamens  are  commanded  by  edict 
November  21  to  attend  the  ceremonies  with  reference  to 
administering  the  oath  to  the  Throne  at  the  ancestral  temple. 
The  solemn  performance  is  preceded  by  rumblings  in  the  Em- 
pire as  of  the  dragon  turning  over.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  threat- 
ened by  assassins.  Immediately  following  the  assertion  of 
his  absolute  mastery  over  the  army,  one  of  the  Imperial 
cruisers  at  Seven  Mile  Creek  bombards  the  Imperialist  sol- 
diers 45  minutes  in  the  morning  and  returns  to  the  attack 
at  2  P.M.,  accompanied  by  other  war-vessels  manoeuvring  in  the 
neighbourhood  and  watching  the  proceedings.  The  navy  is 
entirely  lost  to  the  Throne,  the  army  is  disintegrating,  and 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai  continues  unsuccessful  in  the  effort  to  obtain 
loans.  Only  on  the  bounty  from  the  Court  are  the  guards 
in  the  Capital  kept  loyal,  while  it  is  upon  the  plunder  at  Han- 
kow that  the  army  there  pays  itself  and  is  inspired  to  fight  for 
the  city  of  Hanyang. 

Unable  to  dislodge  the  troops  at  Lanchou  by  persuasion 
or  orders,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  tests  the  loyalty  of  the  division 
in  Manchuria  claimed  by  the  republicans,  and  finding  that 
its  regiments  respond  to  the  Throne's  orders,  he  redistributes 
them  between  Mukden  and  Lanchou. 

The  tremendous  burdens  under  which  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
labours  seem  further  lightened  by  the  return  of  Shantung 
to  the  Imperial  fold,  which  he  can  accept  as  the  direct  answer 
to  his  injunction  that  Shantung  "watch  the  Germans."  His 
lieutenant,  Tang  Shao-yi,  is  disheartened  with  his  master's 
support  of  the  Dynasty,  and  fears  that  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  going 
too  far  in  the  interests  of  the  monarchical  idea  to  effect  again 
the  unity  of  the  country. 

176 


THE  REPUBLIC  AT  THE  GATES  OF  PEKING 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  awaiting  the  restoration  of  quiet  at 
Hankow  and  Hanyang.  The  foreign  Press  has  raised  a  great 
hue  and  cry  of  impending  warfare  at  Nanking  that  has 
greatly  impressed  the  world.  Foreigners  in  the  interior  of 
China  have  asked  for  greater  protection  by  their  Govern- 
ments, which  have  for  the  most  part  ordered  their  subjects 
and  citizens  to  leave  for  the  seaboard.  The  danger  of  China's 
situation  to  the  Christian  element  in  Eastern  Asia  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  action  of  a  Committee  of  the  Foreign  Mis- 
sions in  New  York  City  who,  November  25,  call  on  the 
Churches  of  Canada  and  the  United  States  for  prayers  for 
China.  November  26,  when  the  Prince  Regent  swears  on  be- 
half of  the  Throne  and  the  Dynasty  to  uphold  the  constitu- 
tional 19  articles,  the  so-called  Nanking  battle  begins-,  and  the 
representatives  of  the  foreign  Powers  in  Peking  make  repre- 
sentations to  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  of  the  necessities  of  no  disorders 
at  Peking.  November  27,  the  Revolutionists  are  winning  at 
Nanking,  Tibet  revolts,  and  Canton  is  getting  ready  to  send 
10,000  troops  against  Peking. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  overburdened  with  work  and  with  going 
each  day  to  audience  with  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager. 
To  ease  his  labours  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  excuses 
him  for  little  intervals  of  two  or  three  days  from  reporting 
in  person  to  her.  The  Throne  tries  to  stay  the  complete  dis- 
solution of  the  Cabinet  by  gently  refusing  resignations  here 
and  there.  There  is  no  Cabinet  in  truth,  and  the  National  As- 
sembly is  only  a  name  and  stands  •  for  nothing. 

The  full  magnitude  and  horror  of  the  massacre  of  8,000 
Manchus  at  Hsianfu  (October  22)  and  its  terror  for  the  ruling 
race  is  having  full  effect  in  Peking.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  to  ex- 
tricate himself  from  the  last  ditch  and  save  even  a  footing 
for  the  Premier  Government,  is  promoting  the  investment  of 
Hanyang.  The  movement  is  successful,  and  Hanyang  falls  on 
the  night  of  November  27,  and  is  occupied  by  the  Imperialists 
November  28. 

Troops  that  take  cities  can  pay  themselves,  and  the  army 
before  Hankow  has  now  had  two  cities.  But  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
must  have  money  for  those  troops  who  do  not  take  cities  and 

177 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

many  other  purposes  of  a  Premiership  Government.  Novem- 
ber 29,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  telegraphs  to  Hankow  granting  a  three 
days'  truce,  and  proceeds  to  the  question  of  an  armistice, 
which  General  Feng  Kuo-chang  has  learned  from  President 
General  Li  Yuan-hung  would  be  acceptable  to  the  Republic. 

Two  of  the  three  sister-cities  of  the  Yangtse  have  been 
recovered  by  the  Imperialists,  thereby  placing  the  Premier 
in  a  position  where  he  can  be  magnanimous  toward  the  Re- 
public of  China. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  has  become  an  object  of  quizzical  won- 
der to  foreign  officials  and  others  for  his  endurance,  discre- 
tion and  silence.  On  account  of  his  statesmanship  at  Han- 
yang, by  which  he  has  sacrificed  his  announced  principle  of 
non-destructive  action  and  non-aggression,  to  gain  the  es- 
sential footing  necessary  to  bring  President  General  Li  Yuan- 
hung  to  negotiate  the  question  of  unity  and  further  hostilities, 
he  is  accused  of  working  to  obtain  the  Throne.  His  resolves 
are  rather  magnificent.  On  the  strength  of  his  success  at  Han- 
yang he  optimistically  affirms  that  eight  days  will  find  the 
crisis  over.  If  he  can  only  get  a  few  thousand  taels  per 
month,  he  tells  the  bankers,  he  can  tire  out  the  Revolutionists 
and  force  a  reaction.  The  foreign  bankers  report  only  taels 
2,000,000  in  the  Imperial  Treasury,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  hopeful 
of  loans  from  the  French  and  later  from  others.  "Members 
of  the  Legations"  "believe  he  will  succeed,"  "if  he  can  retake 
one  or  two  provinces." 

Since  reaching  Peking  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  has  ignored  the 
National  Assembly,  because  it  has  merely  persecuted  the  Gov- 
ernment and  is  doing  nothing  constructive  under  the  treatment 
meted  out  to  it  by  the  Republic  at  Wuchang  and  the  assemblies 
of  the  revolted  provinces.  It  has  become  a  mere  remnant 
which  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  himself  ignores.  But  it  has  more 
elements  of  life  than  the  Cabinet  and  is  more  useful.  Besides, 
there  is  no  possibility  of  a  foreign  loan  without  a  sanction  of 
some  representative  body  of  the  people.  It  is  the  first  thing 
the  Premier  has  to  ask  of  the  National  Assembly,  and  it  is 
the  Assembly's  expiring  breath  when,  November  30,  it  meets 
secretly  at  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  request  to  consider  the  question 

178 


THE  REPUBLIC  AT  THE  GATES  OF  PEKING 

of  negotiating  a  big  loan.  The  footing  which  the  Premier- 
ship acquired  by  the  military  success  at  Hanyang  and  in 
arranging  an  armistice  does  not  give  it  sufficient  power  to 
revitalise  the  National  Assembly.  When  the  wand  of  the 
Premier,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  passes  over  it,  it  seems  only  to 
sink  into  a  deeper  and  longer  sleep. 

In  the  last  days  of  November  division  of  the  Empire 
seemed  imminent.  The  Government  at  Peking  was  dead. 
The  Empire  from  the  Throne's  point  of  view  was  a  mass  of 
dynastic  wreckage.  In  four  weeks  the  rebellion  had  swept 
away  the  Throne's  government,  its  ministers  and  Cabinet, 
and  those  ministers  disappeared  from  view.  The  Throne  was 
brought  to  its  knees  by  a  general  commanding  5,000  troops. 
It  capitulated  to  the  National  Assembly,  which  in  turn  was 
cowed  by  President  Li  Yuan-hung  and  dispersed  by  the  power 
of  the  revolted  provinces.  The  rebels  had  become  patriots, 
and  two  additional  republics  and  three  independencies  had 
arisen.  Doubtful  of  its  success  in  recalling  Yuan  Shih-k'ai, 
it  looked  for  other  converts  and  failed  to  find  them.  Even 
monarchists  like  General  Chang  Shao-tseng  and  the  reform- 
ers of  1898  fled  from  it.  It  committed  .everything  to  one 
man  without  reserve.  All  its  measures  were  fruitless.  The 
Imperial  army  that  should  have  taken  Wuchang  seemed  par- 
alysed. The  capital  was  intermittently  in  the  throes  of  panic. 
The  navy  had  gone  bodily  over  to  the  Revolutionists.  The 
metropolitan  province  itself  asked  for  a  republic.  Hankow 
was  an  "Inferno,"  and  Nanking  arose  as  another  battle- 
ground. The  one  man  called  to  save  the  Empire  was  unable 
to  form  a  Cabinet,  and  the  Throne  represented  by  the  Prince 
Regent  foreswore  its  heritage  before  the  manes  of  its  ances- 
tors. 

Nanking  is  falling.  The  Imperialist  General  Chang  Hsun, 
the  swashbuckler  who  has  sworn  "to  die  in  the  last  ditch 
before  surrendering  Nanking,"  in  the  last  hours  of  Novem- 
ber is  giving  up  the  City  without  a  struggle.  As  Nanking 
falls,  a  note  of  pathos  in  the  Premier's  position  is  struck  by 
the  words  circulated  in  the  Legation  Quarter  that  his  friends 
are  arranging  for  his  protection  at  the  Legations.  His  vie-- 

179 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

torious  army  at  Hanyang  is  about  to  be  withdrawn,  in  ac- 
cordance with  an  armistice  which  he  has  sanctioned.  "They 
have  started  to  talk,"  says  a  common  Chinese  on  the  street 
in  Hankow,  "so  there  will  be  no  more  fighting.  They  will 
talk  until  they  agree,  and  then  they  will  make  a  bargain.  That 
is  Chinese." 


CHAPTER  XVII 
DECEMBER   IN    PEKING 

PEKING  in  December,  1911,  was  slowly  going  out  of 
business  as  a  Capital.  To  the  republican  Press  at 
Wuchang  it  was  a  kind  of  morgue.  "Prince  Ching  has 
drunk  poison  and  is  dead,"  said  one  of  its  papers.  "Yin 
Chang  is  certainly  dead,  but  the  high  Ministers  are  keeping 
the  matter  secret."  "Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  killed."  They  have 
even  killed  General  Feng  Kuo-chang  commanding  the  Im- 
perialist army.  "It  is  a  thousand  pities  that  Feng  the  thief 
has  been  poisoned,"  they  go  on  to  say;  "since  he  burned 
Hankow  and  plundered  and  killed  several  thousands  of  people, 
it  is  but  right  that  he  should  die,  but  he  ought  to  have  been 
caught  alive  and  had  his  head  chopped  off." 

None  of  these  things  is  true.  Peking  is  quiet  in  its  de- 
cline, so  far  there  is  nothing  bloody  about  it. 

The  very  last  thing  as  November  closed,  the  Throne 
issued  an  edict  commanding  that  henceforth  all  ministers  of 
state  "are  to  ride  on  horseback  within  the  precincts  of  the 
Imperial  Palace."  This  has  been  an  honour  conferred  in  the 
past  only  on  princes  and  grand  councillors  and  other  specially 
favoured  dignitaries.  The  edict  does  not  increase  the  traffic 
in  the  deserted  courts  and  avenues  of  the  Imperial  premises. 
Nanking,  the  seat  of  the  Chinese  Ming  Emperors,  that  arose 
as  a  battle-ground  is  again  ascending,  now  as  a  Capital.  De- 
cember i,  the  Imperial  troops  lose  their  last  position  on  Pur- 
ple Hill — the  purple,  as  it  were,  seems  to  fall  from  the 
shoulders  of  the  Manchus  with  this  loss,  and  when  the  Rev- 
olutionists occupy  Nanking,  December  2,  not  a  single  province 
has  yet  responded  to  the  Throne's  call  for  representatives  to 
a  national  conference  at  Peking.  There  is  no  Treasury  in 
Peking,  the  most  important  branch  of  government.  The 
Minister  of  Finance  appointed  by  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  refused  to 

181 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

serve.  The  Vice-Minister  disappeared,  fleeing  in  a  darkened 
railway  coupe  to  Tientsin,  and  then  going  to  Shanghai.  They 
joined  the  flight  while  the  running  was  good. 

The  situation  in  China  is  one  of  lively  inspiration  to 
European  and  American  caricaturists,  who  have  long  loved 
"Hop  Lee,"  with  his  goggles,  flirtatious  fan,  and  swishing 
queue,  as  a  subject.  Threatening  letters  received  by  Peking 
officials  are  to  them  the  last  call  to  decamp.  If  this  keeps 
up,  the  Emperor  of  China  will  not  have  even  the  outer  shell 
of  a  Government,  nor  yet  a  Court. 

The  Regent,  Prince  Chun,  resigns  in  an  attempt  to 
save  the  situation  for  his  son  the  Emperor,  and  is  dismissed 
by  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager.  The  eye  of  the  initiate 
sees  the  late  Empress  Grand  Dowager  rising  from  her  tomb 
in  the  Eastern  Hunting  Park.  With  the  mantle  of  the  Em- 
press Grand  Dowager's  power,  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dow- 
ager takes  over  the  state,  or  what  is  left  of  it.  Down  goes 
Prince  Chun,  and  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  triumphs 
over  her  factional  rivals. 

The  exit  of  the  Prince  Regent  is  the  simplest  possible. 
The  edict  attributes  to  him  a  merely  verbal  resignation  and 
shows  him  summarily  removed.  It  says  the  Regent  has  verb- 
ally memorialised  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  that  he 
has  held  the  Regency  for  three  years  but  that  the  Regency 
has  been  unpopular;  the  constitutional  government  has  not 
been  established,  owing  to  which  complications  arose,  the 
people's  hearts  have  been  broken,  and  the  country  was  thrown 
into  turmoil.  "The  Regent  regrets  that  his  repentance  came 
too  late,  and  feels  that  if  he  continues  in  power  his  com- 
mands will  soon  be  disregarded.  He  wept  and  prayed  to 
resign  the  Regency,  at  the  same  time  expressing  his  earnest 
intentions  to  abstain  from  politics.  I,  the  Empress  Dowager, 
living  in  the  Palace,  am  ignorant  of  the  state  of  affairs,  but  I 
know  that  rebellion  exists  and  fighting  continues,  causing  dis- 
aster everywhere,  while  the  commerce  of  friendly  nations  suf- 
fers. The  Regent  is  honest  though  ambitious.  Being  misled, 
he  has  harmed  the  people.  Therefore  his  resignation  is  ac- 
cepted. The  Regent's  seal  is  cancelled.  Let  the  Regent  re- 

182 


DECEMBER    IN    PEKING 

ceive  taels  50,000  annually  from  the  Imperial  household  allow- 
ances. Hereafter  the  Premier  and  Cabinet  shall  control  ap- 
pointments and  the  administration.  Edicts  shall  be  sealed  with 
the  Emperor's  seal." 

In  closing  this  edict  of  dismissal  the  Lung  Yu  Empress 
Dowager  said  something  so  much  in  the  style  of  the  Em- 
press Grand  Dowager  that  it  startled  even  the  Imperialist 
reformers.  "I  will  lead  the  Emperor  to  conduct  audiences," 
said  she.  This  cost  her  something  to  explain,  because  it  ap- 
peared to  be  a  taking  over  of  the  Throne  for  herself.  The 
concluding  paragraphs  of  the  edict  are  drawn  so  as  not  to 
invalidate  this  interpretation  while  at  the  same  time  admitting 
of  an  opposite  interpretation.  The  latter  was  in  fact  seized 
upon  by  the  republican  Government.  The  closing  paragraphs 
are : 

"The  guardianship  of  the  holy  person  of  the  Emperor, 
who  is  of  tender  age,  .shall  be  a  special  responsibility.  Hsu 
Shih-chang  and  Hsih  Hsu  are  appointed  therefore  Grand 
Guardians  of  the  Emperor. 

"As  the  time  is  critical,  princes  and  nobles  must  observe 
this.  The  Imperial  Family,  rulers,  and  ministers,  who  have 
undertaken  great  responsibility,  must  be  loyal  and  help  the 
country  and  people,  who  now  must  realise  that  the  Court 
does  not  object  to  surrender  the  power  vested  in  the  Throne. 
Let  the  people  observe  order  and  continue  business,  and  thus 
prevent  the  country's  disruption  and  restore  prosperity." 

Prince  Chun's  political  career  was  brief.  Nothing  more 
could  have  been  expected  of  him,  since  he  was  a  young  man 
and  in  the  modern  political  sense  without  education  or  train- 
ing. The  Legations  sympathised  with  and  pitied  him  as  one 
who  was  unselfish,  and  who  without  the  essential  capabilities 
nevertheless  sought  the  welfare  of  the  Throne,  and  did  it  in 
the  midst  of  surroundings  in  which  success  was  hopeless. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  rid  of  the  exasperating  young  man  who 
had  kuai-ed  (taken  offence  at)  and  hectored  him  in  times 
past.  The  whole  state  is  now  on  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  shoulders, 

183 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

as  before,  and  he  has  an  equally  incapable  and  helpless  woman 
and  child-Emperor  on  his  hands  as  before.  In  substance  the 
Throne  has  really  abdicated,  for  it  is  clinging  only  to  mere 
Imperial  forms,  with  a  diminishing  hope  of  ever  retrieving 
their  substance. 

The  National  Assembly's  memorial  on  the  queue  reaches 
the  Throne,  and  it  issues  an  edict  December  7  as  follows : 
"All  Our  servants  and  subjects  are  hereby  permitted  to  cut 
their  hair  at  their  own  free  will."  Appended  to  this  brief 
statute  like  a  tail  comes  the  large  Imperial  seal,  and  the  long 
signatures  of  the  Premier  and  ten  other  ministers  of  state  with 
their  titles.  .  There  are  only  three  ministers  in  Peking  and 
these  are  the  least  important  ones.  Six  of  the  signatures  are 
of  "acting"  ministers.  The  signature  of  the  Minister  of  Jus- 
tice in  his  "absence"  is  signed  by  another. 

Hsu  Shih-chang,  an  able-bodied  recipient  of  many  favours 
from  the  Throne  in  the  past,  is  trying  to  evade  his  responsi- 
bilities. "I  am  in  receipt  of  an  edict  .from  Her  Majesty  the 
Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager,"  says  the  little  Emperor, 
"wherein  Hsu  Shih-chang  prays  for  the  rescission  of  a  former 
order  [appointing  him  Grand  Guardian  of  the  Emperor]. 
Her  Majesty  decrees  that  'as  the  protection  of  my  sacred  per- 
son is  a  most  weighty  responsibility,  and  in  view  of  the  trust- 
worthiness of  the  said  Grand  Secretary,  who  is  honest  and 
large-minded  and  a  veteran  in  experience,  he  has,  in  conse- 
quence, been  appointed  Grand  Guardian.  He  should  at  this 
moment  exert  his  loyalty  and  devotion,  sparing  neither  fa- 
tigue nor  pain.  His  request  that  I  rescind  the  former  order 
need  not  be  entertained." 

So  much  had  the  acts  of  the  Throne  resembled  abdication 
to  the  Revolutionists  that  they  ascribed  to  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  the 
credit  of  accomplishing  without  disorder  in  Peking  the  re- 
moval of  the  Dynasty  and  the  transition  to  a  republic  or  to  a 
Chinese  monarchy.  The  Throne  had  dismissed  the  Prince 
Regent.  It  had  finally  abandoned  the  wearing  of  the  queue  as 
a  sign  of  loyalty,  and  now,  simultaneously,  it  sanctioned  the 
substitution  of  the  calendar  of  the  solar  system  for  the  dy- 
nastic one. 

184 


DECEMBER    IN    PEKING 

These  edicts  were  epochal.  They  gave  the  impression  of 
dissolution  of  the  Throne's  power.  But  one  high  official, 
Governor  Chen  Chao-chang,  at  Kirin  in  Manchuria,  who  could 
not  conceive  such  self-denial  and  mistook  it  for  strategy, 
memorialised  the  Cabinet,  representing  the  Lung  Yu  Empress 
Dowager  as  endeavouring  to  obtain  private  power  in  her  own 
interest,  and  called  attention  to  the  gravity  of  the  Govern- 
ment's situation.  His  memorial  startled  the  Lung  Yu  Em- 
press Dowager,  who  issued  an  edict  reprimanding  Chen  Chao- 
chang  and  others  for  their  extraordinary  ignorance  of  pres- 
ent affairs  and  inability  to  comprehend  their  duty.  "The  said 
Governors  and  others  have  indulged  in  rash  surmises,"  said 
the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager,  "by  hastily  giving  utterance 
to  such  words  as  'indiscriminate  and  chaotic  changes  have 
thus  far  taken  place  in  the  Imperial  Government,'  and  'dis- 
union in  political  authority  and  dissension  in  the  Palace.' 
They  are  really  not  aware  of  the  Throne's  earnest  desire  in 
introducing  new  methods  suitable  to  the  moment,  and  of  its 
high  sense  of  justice  precluding  selfish  motives." 

In  this  edict  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  then  ex- 
plains the  situation  of  the  Court  and  of  the  Emperor:  "This 
time  Prince  Chun's  prayer  to  resign  his  Prince-Regentship 
has  been  accepted  by  me,  and  the  responsible  duties  in  con- 
nection with  official  appointment,  political  administration,  etc., 
have  been  entrusted  to  the  Premier  of -the  Cabinet  and  Min- 
isters of  State,  in  strict  accordance  with  the  constitutional  form 
of  government,  the  only  provision  being  made  that  the  De- 
crees for  promulgation  shall  be  stamped  with  the  Imperial 
Seal,  and  that  I  shall  lead  and  accompany  the  Emperor  to  at- 
tend the  holdings  of  ceremonial  audiences.  The  latter  proced- 
ure is  entirely  different  from  the  lowered  curtain  politic  duties 
in  the  former  reign;  it  is  truly  the  actual  reform  of  political 
foundation,  so  as  to  show  no  monopolising  of  Our  Sovereign 
Power  in  beginning  a  new  life  with  Our  subjects." 

This  edict,  bearing  the  Emperor's  seal  and  signed  by  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  and  others  representing  all  the  Ministries,  closed 
with  these  words : 

"At  present  the  general  position  is  very  critical,  as  if  it 

185 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

would  not  last  a  day.  The  popular  mind  is  easily  agitated, 
and  rumours  are  rampant  on  all  sides.  The  said  Governor 
and  others  should  unite  in  mind  as  well  as  in  strength,  to  en- 
dure it  with  calmness,  to  preserve  peace  and  order,  and  to 
prevent  perturbation."  December  20,  the  Lung  Yu  Empress 
Dowager  further  confounding  the  opinions  of  Governor  Chen, 
issued  an  edict  that  all  memorials  be  submitted  to  the  Cab- 
inet, and  not  to  the  Throne  as  in  the  past,  thus  driving  home 
her  protest  that  "the  Court  does  not  object  to  surrendering 
the  power  vested  in  the  Throne." 

Well  may  the  Throne  adjure  the  living  leaders  to  be  calm 
and  unperturbed  at  a  time  when  it  is  paying  homage  to  its 
loyal  dead.  "Feng  Ju-kuei,  Governor  of  Kiangsi,"  says  an 
edict,  December  5,  "devoted  many  years  to  Our  service,  and 
he  was  assiduous  in  performing  his  duties.  Owing  to  the  fall 
of  the  capital  City  of  Kiangsi  [Nanchang],  he  committed 
suicide  with  composure,  demonstrating  the  inviolability  of  his 
great  honour,  which  action  calls  forth  Our  deep  compassion. 
.  .  .  He  is  to  be  appointed  to  highest  honours  and  favours, 
which  are  customarily  granted  to  a  Viceroy  who  has  died  in 
battle.  All  his  demerits  on  record  during  his  official  career 
are  hereby  cancelled." 

His  two  sons  are  promoted  "as  an  encouragement  of  the 
dutiful  honour  of  an  official  and  to  soothe  the  loyal  soul  of  the 
deceased." 

December  9,  the  Throne  pays  similar  posthumous  honours 
to  Sung  Shou,  Viceroy  of  Fukien  and  Chekiang.  An  official 
"ripe  in  experience  and  loyal  in  sentiment,"  who  also  "com- 
mitted suicide  with  composure,  owing  to  the  fall  of  the  capi- 
tal City  of  Fukien"  [Foochow]. 

December  24,  the  Throne  paid  its  respects  to  the  spirit  of 
a  former  officer  of  guards  in  the  Palace,  General  Chao 
Kuotsien,  who  committed  suicide  at  his  post  in  Kuang- 
tung,  owing  to  the  fall  of  the  City.  "His  loyalty  and  self- 
sacrifice  are  really  worthy  of  the  best  tradition,"  says  the 
Throne. 

The  Throne  has  little  else  to  do  than  mourn  over  and 
pay  rites  to  its  loyal  dead.  It  is  like  a  bird  fluttering  about 

186 


DECEMBER    IN    PEKING 

the  old  nest,  touching  here  and  there  preparatory  to  its  last 
departure. 

So  satisfied  in  their  minds  are  the  Revolutionists  and  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  himself  of  the  passing  of  the  Dynasty,  that  they 
agree  to  indefinite  armistices,  which  now  reach  to  December 
21.  President  Li  Yuan-hung  and  the  Republic  at  Wuchang 
have  recovered  confidence  since  the  loss  of  Hanyang  and  its 
evacuation  by  the  Imperalists  and  are  unwilling  for  anything 
but  a  republic.  Delegates  of  five  provinces  at  Shanghai  will 
submit  to  nothing  less  than  abdication.  Both  republics  are 
willing  to  concede  full  power  to  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  if  he  will 
eliminate  the  Manchus  from  the  Central  Government.  Only 
Canton  opposes  him. 

The  Peking  Government  is  willing  to  agree  to  a  com- 
promise with  the  Revolutionists  on  any  terms,  and  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  secures  the  aid  of  his  old  lieutenant,  Tang  Shao-yi, 
as  Envoy,  to  make  overtures  of  peace  to  the  Revolutionists. 
As  has  been  the  case  steadily  from  the  beginning,  each  suc- 
ceeding overture  has  only  advanced  the  revolt  and  hurried  on 
the  final  capitulation. 

Now  that  Nanking  has  fallen  to  the  Revolutionists,  the 
balance  of  republican  power  is  on  the  side  of  the  coast  prov- 
inces. After  the  fall  of  Hanyang,  Shanghai  is  able  to  dic- 
tate to  Wuchang.  Led  by  Wu  Ting-fang,  it  repudiates  the 
equivocal  announcement  by  Li  Yuan-hung  made  on  the  fall 
of  Hanyang  to  the  effect  that  he  would  defer  to  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  and  is  willing  to  compromise  on  a  constitutional 
monarchy,  and  Wuchang  stands  firm  with  Shanghai  and  Can- 
ton for  a  republic. 

December  7,  Tang  Shao-yi  is  ready  to  proceed  to  Wu- 
chang, where  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  most  hopeful  of  reasonable 
terms  on  account  of  the  able  conservatism  of  Li  Yuan-hung. 
December  8,  however,  Li  Yuan-hung  gives  out  a  draft  con- 
stitution for  the  Republic  one  day  before  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 's 
envoy  carrying  plenipotentiary  power  leaves  Peking  to  nego- 
tiate with  him.  Wu  Ting-fang  takes  occasion  to  announce 
that  no  negotiations  conducted  at  Wuchang  can  be  regarded 
as  official.  Shanghai  has  become  the  republican  centre  and 

187 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

is  the  meeting-point  of  the  refugee  members  from  the  Na- 
tional Assembly  at  Peking,  the  exiles  and  revolutionaries  from 
Japan,  the  students  and  reformers  from  America,  the  con- 
spirators and  reformers  from  Hongkong,  the  Straits  Settle- 
ments and  Europe,  and  the  republicans  from  Canton  and  the 
Yangtse  Valley. 

December  n,  Li  Yuan-hung  and  his  delegates  at  Wu- 
chang reply  to  Wu  Ting-fang  by  choosing  him  as  negotiator 
in  the  peace  conference  and  inviting  him  to  Wuchang.  Sup- 
ported by  the  delegates  at  Shanghai,  who  claim  to  represent 
nearly  all  China,  he  declines  to  go  to  Wuchang  on  account 
of  its  not  being  a  fit  place  for  peace  negotiations,  being  the 
scene  of  recent  defeats  of  the  Revolutionist  troops. 

From  this  moment  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  has  for  his  antagonist 
Wu  Ting-fang,  who  first  assails  him  on  the  loans  he  is  en- 
deavouring to  consummate.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  as  Hanyang  fell, 
got  together  the  remnant  of  the  National  Assembly,  consisting 
mostly  of  the  members  that  were  the  Throne's  appointees,  and 
the  last  day  of  November  secured  their  approval  of  a  Bel- 
gian loan  proposal  for  taels  30,000,000  and  another  for  taels 
14,000,000,  money  ostensibly  for  administrative  and  indus- 
trial purposes. 

The  National  Assembly  thereby  attracted  more  bitter  crit- 
icism than  ever  before.  Many  of  its  Southern  members — 
those  who  were  not  at  Wuchang  or  Canton — were  at  Shang- 
hai. They  denounced  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  trumped-up  Assembly, 
and  Wu  Ting- fang,  December  12,  notified  the  consuls  and 
foreign  banks  in  Shanghai  and  cabled  the  financiers  in  Amer- 
ica and  Europe  not  to  loan  money  to  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  on  the 
plea  that  it  was  intended  for  peaceable  objects,  because  its 
real  destination  was  the  Imperialis.t  war-chest. 

When  Tang  Shao-yi  gets  to  Wuchang  he  finds  a  consti- 
tutional republican  government  that  has  nothing  to  say  to  him 
except  that  he  should  go  on  to  Shanghai.  While  he  is  jour- 
neying, out  of  touch  with  events  and  helpless,  down  the 
Yangtse  River,  the  Revolutionists  at 'Shanghai  organise  the 
"Republic  of  China,"  so  as  to  be  ready  for  his  arrival.  De- 
cember 14,  they  announce  the  establishment  of  a  republican 

188 


DECEMBER    IN    PEKING 

government  of  all  China,  with  Sun  Yat-sen  as  Provisional 
President  of  the  ten  Revolutionist  provinces,  with  General 
Huang  Hsing  to  act  for  him  until  his  arrival.  He  is  en  route 
>to  China  from  America. 

The  delegates  of  these  ten  provinces  meeting  as  a  national 
convention  adopt  peace  terms — an  ultimatum  to  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai  and  the  Throne — to  hand  to  Tang  Shao-yi.  The  next 
day,  when  Tang  arrives,  they  hand  him  their  programme 
for  the  abolition  of  the  Dynasty,  the  establishment  of  the 
Republic,  with  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  as  President,  and  Sun  Yat-sen 
Vice-President,  under  a  cabinet  to  be  selected  by  the  Revolu- 
tionists. They  then  have  nothing  to  negotiate  except  the  terms 
of  the  Court's  seclusion.  That  is  the  peace  conference. 

Having  nothing  else  to  do,  or  believing  he  has  nothing 
else  to  do,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  envoy  successively  gives  way 
in  the  questions  arising  at  the  peace  conference  until  Decem- 
ber 20  he  is  "convinced  that  only  the  abdication  of  the  Em- 
peror and  the  establishment  of  a  Republic  will  satisfy  the 
people  and  prevent  further  shedding  of  blood."  Friends  in 
Peking  of  Tang  Shao-yi,  the  Envoy,  receive  telegrams  from 
him  requesting  them  to  persuade  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  to  agree  with 
him. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  fears  that  a  republic  means  China's  dis- 
solution. Tang  Shao-yi  then  proposes  to  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  that 
the  question  of  the  future  form  of  government  for  China  be 
submitted  to  a  national  convention  to  be  called  at  Nanking 
especially  for  this  purpose.  Everything  imaginable  is  sug- 
gested in  Peking  to  avoid  a  republic,  including  the  retirement 
of  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  and  the  creation  of  a 
Chinese  regency.  . 

The  power  of  the  Republic  has  annihilated  all  loan  pros- 
pects until  this  question  is  settled.  All  other  questions  van- 
ish before  that  of  the  future  form  of  government,  and  De- 
cember 26  an  historical  conference  takes  place  at  which  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  presents  the  proposal  submitted  by  Tang  Shao-yi  and 
the  republicans,  to  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  and  the 
princes  and  nobles  of  the  Imperial  Clan.  Members  of  the 
Court  realize  that  there  is  no  hope  for  the  Throne  in  the 

189 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

support  of  only  a  few  provinces  or  districts  of  questionable 
loyalty.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  telegraphs  to  Tang  Shao-yi  the  ac- 
ceptance of  the  principle  of  his  proposal,  and  in  doing  so  he 
loosens  his  last  frail  grasp  of  the  Throne. 

December  28  there  is  another  conference  to  arrange  the 
edict  of  acceptance.  The  Republic  was  already  set  up  in  the 
old  Capital  of  the  Mings,  Nanking.  Fearing  they  will  be 
forced  to  accept  worse  terms,  they  grasp  with  eagerness  the 
principle  of  the  proposed  referendum,  and  disclose  their  will- 
ingness to  agree  under  certain  conditions  to  abdication  itself. 

The  scenes  in  the  audience-chamber  and  the  passages  sur- 
rounding it  during  this  momentous  conclave  of  the  last  rep- 
resentatives of  the  Manchu  conquerors  were  described  by  the 
vernacular  Press  as  impressive  and  awful :  the  Lung  Yu  Em- 
press Dowager  swooning  in  the  arms  of  her  attendants  and 
ladies-in-waiting,  while  the  dissenting  princes,  Yu  Lang,  Tsai 
T'ao,  and  others,  prefer  death  to  dishonour  amid  lamenta- 
tions that  fill  the  audience-hall  and  the  courts  outside. 

The  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager's  account,  issued  in  the 
name  of  the  little  Emperor,  is  quite  different.  In  an  edict  ac- 
cepting the  proposal  and  authorising  the  special  conference 
to  determine  the  future  form  of  government,  she  says:  "In 
response  to  a  request  of  the  ministers  of  state,  I  have  sum- 
moned an  assembly  of  the  princes  and  dukes  nearly  related 
to  the  Imperial  Family  for  a  conference,  and  have  ques- 
tioned them  in  person,  but  no  dissentient  words  have  been 
spoken. 

"We  granted  the  request  of  the  National  Assembly 
[hitherto]  and  promulgated  a  constitutional  statute  of  19  ar- 
ticles," continues  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager,  "taking 
an  oath  of  adherence  in  Our  Ancestral  Temple  expecting  an 
early  cessation  of  hostilities.  .  .  .  However,  owing  to  in- 
credulity in  Our  good  faith,  political  strife  has  repeatedly 
arisen.  In  my  opinion  the  question  of  which  of  the  two  forms, 
monarchical  constitution  or  republican  constitution,  would  bet- 
ter suit  Our  country  to-day,  ...  is  not  one  which  a  single 
section  of  the  people  may  monopolise,  nor  can  it  be  decided 
by  the  Throne  alone."  Proceeding,  the  Emperor  is  then  made 

190 


DECEMBER    IN    PEKING 

to  command  the  Cabinet  to  frame  proper  rules  of  election  to 
be  later  adopted,  in  order  to  summon  the  Parliament  within 
the  shortest  time. 

Throughout  the  several  recommendations  and  orders  of 
the  Emperor,  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  goes  right  on 
talking,  in  an  almost  pitiful  way,  expressing  her  opinions, 
hopes,  and  wishes.  "I  am  of  opinion,"  she  says,  "that  Heaven 
will  give  new  birth  to  the  people,  and  then  elect  a  Monarch 
for  them,  to  shepherd  [guide]  them."  She  then  makes  a  plea 
for  the  Throne  in  these  words :  "It  is  intended  that  one 
man  should  feed  the  world  [the  nation],  and  not  that  the 
world  should  support  one  man.  The  Emperor  has  ascended 
and  inherited  the  Throne  at  a  tender  age;  and  as  for  me, 
I  am  certainly  not  hard-hearted  enough  to  sacrifice  human 
lives  and  injure  the  whole  nation.  My  only  hope  is  that  the 
Parliament  will  discuss  and  decide  what  is  beneficial  to  the 
nation  and  helpful  to  the  people.  Heaven  sees  what  the  peo- 
ple see,  and  Heaven  hears  what  the  people  hear.  I  wish  my 
patriotic  and  loving  soldiers  and  people,  each  imbued  with 
the  highest  sense  of  justice,  to  join  in  their  deliberations  as 
to  the  adoption  of  the  best  policy,  for  which  I  entertain  the 
sincerest  hope." 

The  Throne  and  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  have  been  completely 
abandoned  by  Tang  Shao-yi.  Tang  Shao-yi  carried  but  one 
requirement  with  him  to  the  South,  expressed  in  three  parts : 
first,  the  retention  of  the  Emperor  and  Throne  with  authority 
in  the  hands  of  the  President  of  the  Council;  second,  the 
election  of  the  President  of  the  Council  by  the  people  to  pos- 
sess the  same  prerogatives  as  the  President  of  a  republic; 
third,  the  autonomy  of  the  provinces  under  these  conditions. 
Possessing  full  plenipotentiary  powers  and  with  no  obligations 
whatever  to  the  Court — perhaps  the  widest  latitude  ever  en- 
joyed by  a  Chinese  envoy — he  abandoned  the  Premier  and 
Court  under  the  circumstances.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  felt  himself 
defeated.  Supported  in  his  conservative  views  on  the  neces- 
sity of  a  monarchy  by  all  his  friendly  advisers  in  the  For- 
eign Legations,  he  felt  the  country  had  gone  mad,  and  was 
for  borrowing  what  money  he  could,  defending  the  country 

191 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

north  of  the  Yangtse,  and  leaving  the  republican  provinces  on 
the  south  to  take  their  own  course. 

The  Throne's  edict  was  unwelcome  to  the  Revolutionists. 
They  would  accept  nothing  that  did  not  permit  of  the  carrying 
out  of  the  Republic  without  delay  and  that  did  not  at  least 
recognise  the  Provisional  Republican  Government.  They  had 
never  hesitated  in  the  assumption  that  the  Republic  was  the 
Government,  and  not  the  Throne. 

When  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  realised  that  the  Revolutionists  ex- 
pected, and  intended,  to  authorise  and  carry  out  the  conference 
for  determining  the  future  form  of  government  themselves, 
he  felt  himself  betrayed  by  his  envoy.  He  bitterly  resented 
what  he  called  the  bad  faith  of  his  antagonist,  Wu  Ting-fang, 
and  the  republican  party,  in  insisting  upon  a  trumped-up  con- 
ference and  not  a  representative  one.  He  asked  of  the 
Throne  three  days'  sick  leave  so  as  to  be  exempt  from  attend- 
ance at  Court.  His  objections  to  the  agreement  entered  into 
by  his  envoy  at  Shanghai  with  the  Revolutionists  received 
their  answer  December  29,  when  Sun  Yat-sen  was  elected  Pro- 
visional President  at  Nanking.  The  Revolutionists  would  not 
wait  for  a  national  conference,  and  did  not  intend  that  the 
Throne  should  ever  have  an  opportunity  to  repudiate  its  ac- 
tion on  the  question  of  China's  future  form  of  government, 
which  action  it  regarded  as  a  virtual  abdication.  They  already 
treated  the  Throne  as  a  thing  of  the  past,  "because  eighteen 
provinces  have  already  voted  for  a  Republic,  and  the  Throne's 
edict  says  it  will  accept  the  decision  of  such  a  convention  of 
voters." 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  telegraphed  Tang  Shao-yi  to  ignore  the 
Throne's  edict,  in  the  hope  of  securing  delay  in  the  appoint- 
ment of  members  of  the  conference.  "I  want  a  true  referen- 
dum on  the  question  of  the  Republic,"  said  he. 

The  remnant  of  the  National  Assembly  which  ten  days 
before  tried  to  suspend  on  account  of  the  peace  conference 
was  not  permitted  to  do  so  by  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  and  is  now 
heard  in  a  faint  cry  declaring  against  the  Republic.  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  says  Tang  Shao-yi  may  be  President,  but  he  himself 
will  never  serve  the  Republic.  He  repudiates  Tang  Shao-yi's 

192 


DECEMBER    IN    PEKING 

actions,  and  approves  only  the  armistice  to  which  his  envoy 
has  agreed.  Tang  Shao-yi,  however,  goes  on  discussing  at 
Shanghai  the  details  of  the  abdication,  and  as  one  of  the 
conditions  of  the  sequestration  of  the  little  Emperor  Pu  Yi 
suggests  ex-territoriality  at  the  Summer  Palace  or  at  Jehol. 
The  Revolutionists  magnanimously  offer  him  treatment  equal 
to  that  of  any  deposed  foreign  potentate. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  deeply  engrossed  with  the  details  of 
Imperialism  and  was  appointing  men  to  vacancies  in  the  Na- 
tional Assembly,  and  to  his  Cabinet,  which  was  a  kind  of 
Chinese  fireworks-machine  firing  off  men  rapidly  as  it  re- 
volved. The  speed  with  which  events  were  moving  at  Shang- 
hai was  something  to  which  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  could  not  con- 
sent, he  could  not  bring  himself  to  catch  up  with  those  events. 
When  Tang  Shao-yi  had  apparently  committed  him  to  en- 
trusting the  question  of  future  government  to  a  national  con- 
ference, Yuan  had  telegraphed  in  protest  to  Li  Yuan-hung 
that  "he  was  sympathetically  inclined  toward  the  republicans; 
but  the  three  questions  of  the  disposal  of  the  infant  Emperor, 
the  Royal  Family,  and  of  the  Manchus  in  general,  are  diffi- 
culties not  easy  to  be  surmounted." 

The  whole  fate  of  his  wards  has  now  been  prearranged 
and  decided.  December  30  he  receives  the  foreign  corre- 
spondents, to  whom  he  confesses  all  his  perplexity.  The 
Throne  has  no  question  before  it  but  that  of  disgorging  its 
riches  or  abdicating.  The  Imperialists  are  no  longer  able  to 
fight  and  defeat  the  Revolutionists  because  of  the  impecunios- 
ity  of  the  Government.  "He  [Yuan  Shih-k'ai]  is  placing  en- 
tire responsibility  on  the  Manchus,"  says  a  critic,  "and  is 
making  a  last  effort  to  'save  face.'  " 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  maintained  his  contention  for  a  proper 
election  of  delegates  at  the  national  conference  and  that  its 
gathering-place  .  should  be  Peking,  and  his  envoy  sought  a 
compromise  on  Chefoo,  or  even  Hankow,  but  the  Revolution- 
ists insisted  upon  Nanking  or  Shanghai.  The  fact  was  the 
whole  suggestion  was  dead  and  there  never  was  to  be  any 
conference  at  all.  Tang  Shao-yi's.  mission  was  ended.  It  was 
ridiculous  except  as  a  complete  surrender  on  behalf  of  the 

193 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

Manchu  Dynasty,  and  having  accomplished  this  surrender  he 
resigned. 

Sun  Yat-sen  had  arrived  in  Shanghai  and  was  now  ready 
to  proceed  to  Nanking  for  his  inauguration,  which  took  place 
on  the  first  day  of  the  new  year.  In  his  oath  of  office  he 
swore  to  overthrow  the  Manchu  Dynasty.  In  Peking  the 
Court  was  actually  making  its  plans  with  a  view  to  abdication, 
and  many  believed  it  had  already  made  secret  arrangements 
by  which  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  and  little  Emperor 
might  take  refuge  in  the  Legations. 

The  state  of  things  in  the  Palace  is  suggested  in  the  semi- 
official announcement  that  the  little  Emperor  has  "ceased  his 
studies."  The  Imperial  tutor  has  been  dismissed. 

This  was  my  Peking.  I  had  thought  the  Dynasty  was  im- 
mortal, it  had  lived  so  long.  It  was  uprooted.  Abdication 
was  now  a  matter  of  mere  formality.  It  was  impossible  that 
a  republic  could  give  it  such  a  shock.  Even  in  1900,  after 
the  Court  had  fled  Peking,  the  Throne  pervaded  the  land — 
now  there  was  nothing.  I  had  seen  the  Court  on  parade  in  all 
its  ancient  and  barbaric  grandeur — remembered  its  return  to 
Peking  and  its  last  Imperial  funerals.  When  it  went  out  it 
was  a  sin  to  look  upon  it,  people  were  hustled  off  the  streets, 
spectators  were  likely  to  be  shot  dead  by  the  bowmen  with 
arrows.  Tradition  says  that  in  the  history  of  persons  living 
this  has  been  done.  All  this  pomp  and  panoply  is  now  van- 
ished. Nothing  remains  but  the  sorrowful  spectacle  of  a 
woman  and  a  little  boy  seeking  a  place  of  safety. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
JANUARY  AND   ABDICATION 

I  DO  not  know  from  what  kind  of  founts  of  imagination 
those  edicts  of  November  and  December  were  pumped 
up  in  such  a  drowning  flow.  I  confess  to  a  sense  of  be- 
wilderment at  all  those  edicts  and  events  when  I  arrived  in 
Peking  in  December — the  last  day.  It  was  New  Year's  Eve 
when  I  arrived  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Williams,  the  First  Sec- 
retary of  the  American  Legation.  It  was  from  his  home, 
strange  coincidence,  that  on  New  Year's  Eve,  1903,  I  left 
Peking  for  the  last  war  in  China.  At  that  time  it  was  a  ques- 
tion which  would  be  the  most  lively  and  interesting,  Man- 
churia or  Peking — the  war  in  Manchuria  or  the  Revolution  in 
Peking.  But  it  had  taken  eight  years  for  the  crash  to  come. 
The  stuffed  Legation  Quarter,  bulging  with  art  works  and 
treasure,  and  headquarters  of  refugees,  testified  to  this. 

It  was  eleven  years  since  war  had  visited  Peking.  A  few 
days  after  my  arrival  I  was  reminded  of  1900 — and  the  dis- 
tress of  Peking  and  its  sovereigns.  I  saw  from  the  City 
wall  a  procession  of  prisoners  in  carts  going  to  the  execu- 
tion grounds.  They  always  go  the  same  way  from  the  Board 
of  Punishments,  out  the  Shun-chih  Gate.  Dr.  Ferguson,  who 
lived  by  the  roadside,  thoughtfully  diverted  the  attention  of 
his  family,  so  they  might  not  think  of  the  pitiful  spectacle. 

So,  too,  we  pitied  the  present  •  Throne.  This  Manchu 
woman  and  little  boy,  led  by  the  Chinese  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  are 
watched  by  the  world.  The  living  Son  of  Heaven,  and  the 
Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager,  widow  of  the  last  adult  Em- 
peror, have  put  their  trust  in,  and  left  their  fate  in  the  hands 
of,  "China's  only  statesman."  Is  he  friend  or  traitor? 
Whither  will  he  guide  them? 

At  the  beginning  of  January,  1912,  Peking  awakens  to  a 
coup  d'etat  which  if  recognised  by  the  Manchu  Court  and 

195 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

permitted  to  stand  puts  an  end  to  civil  war  as  it  has  been 
carried  on  since  September,  1911,  and  opens  the  way  for  unit- 
ing the  two  opposite  sections  of  the  country.  The  republicans 
are  determined  to  hold  the  Government  at  Peking  to  the 
terms  of  Tang  Shao-yi's  agreement,  which  in  effect  provides 
for  abdication  and  popular  government.  But  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
cannot  but  be  aggrieved  at  the  Revolutionists  for  thus  leav- 
ing him  without  a  basis  for  negotiations  by  which  to  pro- 
vide for  the  security  of  the  future.  This  to  him  means  de- 
termination of  the  form  of  government  by  the  conservative  ele- 
ment of  the  Chinese  after  mature  deliberation  under  peaceful 
circumstances,  as  well  as  a  safe  and  honourable  provision  for 
his  helpless  wards. 

Circumstances  impel  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  to  offer  his  own  res- 
ignation to  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager.  She  cannot  ac- 
cept it,  and  this  being  the  case  the  Throne  and  Court  are 
obliged  to  proceed  with  the  work  of  abdicating  or  of  recon- 
sidering and  revising  their  policy  of  drifting. 

The  heads  of  the  loyal  army  around  Peking  demand  the 
opening  of  the  Imperial  purse-strings  and  the  carrying  on 
of  the  war.  This  and  the  restlessness  of  a  section  of  the 
Manchu  Clan  lead  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  to  decide 
to  do  so. 

January  I,  a  section  of  the  army  at  Lanchou  (Yung- 
ping-fu)  mutinies  and  threatens  to  march  on  Peking.  It  has 
telegraphed  to  the  Ministers  of  foreign  Powers  at  Peking 
to  this  effect  and  to  the  senior  Consul  (Japanese)  at  Tientsin. 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai  insists  that  unless  the  Imperial  Clan  respond 
to  the  demand  for  funds  his  resignation  must  be  accepted. 

January  2,  in  a  long  audience  at  the  Palace,  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai  explains  the  entire  situation,  repudiates  Tang  Shao-yi's 
agreement  with  Wu  Ting-fang  as  unwarranted,  and  charges 
Tang  with  treachery. 

The  Imperial  Clan  and  the  Court  suspect  that  they  have 
been  led  into  a  trap.  Realising  their  loss,  some  felt  them- 
selves already  betrayed.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  and  his  makeshift 
Cabinet  accept  Tang  Shao-yi's  resignation. 

The  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  gives  up  80,000  ounces 

196 


JANUARY   AND    ABDICATION 

of  gold  and  promises  to  compel  contributions  by  the  Clan 
members.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  comes  into  possession  of  a  large 
sum  of  money,  and  informs  the  Legations  that  he  will  fight 
for  a  monarchy,  and  believes  he  can  hold  the  North  and  that 
the  South  will  disintegrate. 

The  republicans  are  determined  that  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  shall 
not  recover  his  ground  lost  through  Tang  Shao-yi.  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  receives  a  telegram  from  Sun  Yat-sen  offering  to 
surrender  the  Presidency  to  him,  and  Wu  Ting-fang  of  the  re- 
publican Government  announces  the  Republic's  readiness  to 
resume  war  now  that  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  has  repudiated  Tang 
Shao-yi's  action.  The  American  Minister  cables  to  Washing- 
ton for  troops.  All  other  Powers  have  troops  at  command, 
and  the  Allies  unite  in  garrisoning  the  railway  from  the  sea 
to  Peking. 

The  armistice  expired,  the  Revolutionist  troops  attack  the 
Imperialists  north  of  Hankow,  where,  January  4,  there  are 
several  hundred  casualties  and  the  Imperialists  are  reinforc- 
ing. Yuan  Shih-k'ai  thanks  Sun  Yat-sen  for  his  offer  of  the 
Presidency,  at  the  same  time  receives  from  him  through  Wu 
Ting-fang  an  invitation  to  come  to  Shanghai  to  negotiate,  as 
correspondence  is  impracticable.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  retorts  that 
as  Wu  Ting- fang  has  nothing  to  do,  he  had  better  come  to 
Peking. 

Wu  Ting-fang  is  surprised  at  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  "delay"  in 
agreeing  "to  submit  the  question  of  a  future  Government  to 
a  convention,"  and  telegraphs  all  the  Legations  in  Peking 
blaming  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  for  the  deadlock  in  the  peace  nego- 
tiations. January  5,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  submits  all  the  corre- 
spondence with  the  Republican  peace  commissioner  to  the  For- 
eign Legations,  and  the  foreign  diplomats  take  his  view.  He 
telegraphs  at  length  to  Wu  Ting-fang  in  reconsideration  of 
the  matter  of  the  conference,  but  the  republicans  refuse  to 
back  and  take  up  that  question.  Wu  Ting-fang  declines  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai's  invitation  to  come  to  Peking,  and  also  his  pro- 
posals as  to  a  method  of  electing  members  to  a  conference  on 
government  which  would  take  six  months  to  carry  out. 

There  has  been  no  armistice  since  8  A.M.,  December  31, 

197 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

and  on  account  of  the  deadlock  with  Wu  Ting-fang,  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  is  arranging  directly  with  Sun  Yat-sen  for  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  armistice. 

The  republicans  are  trying  to  hold  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  to  an 
agreement  which  they  have  signed  with  his  envoy  to  sub- 
mit the  question  of  what  form  of  government  China  shall 
have,  to  a  conference  of  all  the  people.  But  immediately  after 
signing  it  they  have  made  the  Government  a  Republic  without 
the  least  hesitation,  and  "elected"  a  President  who  has  taken 
oath  to  overthrow  the  Dynasty  which  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  repre- 
sents, and  their  object  is  the  confirmation  of  this  Govern- 
ment by  every  means.  The  great  Powers  encourage  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai,  who  in  the  midst  of  the  deadlock  with  Wu  Ting- 
fang  telegraphs  him  protesting  that  it  is  inconsistent  to  es- 
tablish a  republican  Government  the  President  of  which  has 
taken  oath  to  overthrow  the  Manchu  Government,  inquires 
what  is  the  object  of  establishing  the  republican  Government, 
and  wants  to  know  whether  the  President  will  be  removed 
from  office  if  a  monarchy  is  decided  on.  This  is  the  retort 
cordiale. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  situation  is  desperate.  He  is  unable  to 
regain  his  ground  by  arguing  the  principle  that  his  envoy  had 
plenary  powers  only  to  discuss,  and  not  to  sign,  agreements. 
The  Republic  is  going  right  ahead,  overthrowing  the  Man- 
chus.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  last  defence  is  uttered  January  10, 
when  he  says :  "I  appointed  a  Peace  Commission  because  I 
recognised  that  force  would  never  solve  the  differences  be- 
tween Northern  and  Southern  China,  which  can  only  be  fused 
by  a  compromise.  I  obtained  what  is  unprecedented,  Imperial 
sanction  to  a  convention  empowered  if  it  so  chooses  to  vote 
away  the  Dynasty  and  legally  establish  a  Republic.  But  in- 
stead of  accepting  this  remarkable  offer,  the  revolutionary 
leaders  believed  that  they  could  trick  me  into  accepting  a 
packed  Revolutionist  convention,  which  I  never  will  do." 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  thus  disposed  forever  of  the  question  of 
a  conference  on  the  lines  contemplated  by  the  republicans  to 
determine  the  future  government  of  China.  He  did  not 
abandon  his  principle.  At  the  same  time  that  he  was  await- 

198 


JANUARY   AND    ABDICATION 

ing  the  dissolution  of  the  republican  South  or  abdication  in  the 
North  to  solve  the  problem  in  China,  he  went  right  on  nego- 
tiating the  Manchu  Dynasty  and  Court  out  of  existence,  while 
hoping  for  an  eventual  monarchy  that  would  be  more  in  ac- 
cord with  the  ideas  and  traditions  of  China's  millions. 

The  confusion  in  Peking  was  measurably  increased  by  the 
expectation  of  abdication.  The  foreign  correspondents  in 
long  anti-climaxes,  promised  it  to  the  world  from  day  to 
day.  The  Foreign  Legations  have  given  up  all  efforts  at  sum- 
marising the  situation  and  are  trying  merely  to  report  to 
their  Governments  daily  events. 

What  impresses  me  most  in  making  my  rounds  of  observa- 
tion is  the  indifference  of  the  people,  stolid  amid  an  immense 
quietness  due  to  the  lull  in  the  machinery  of  state.  Gone  are 
the  green  chairs  of  the  officials,  the  red  carts  of  the  princely 
families,  and  the  yellow  Imperial  chairs  with  their  parapher- 
nalia and  retinues,  and  except  for  the  traffic  to  and  from  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai's  headquarters  and  residence  in  the  Foreign  Office 
building,  official  carriages.  In  their  places  are  additional  po- 
lice, and  at  the  princes'  palaces,  where  bright  cavalcades  and 
processions  otherwise  come  and  go,  are  silent  soldiers  in  grey 
groups.  To  the  ubiquitous  amateur  photographer  craving 
Oriental  picturesqueness  for  his  films  these  latter  in  their  semi- 
foreign  uniforms  are  a  tame  substitute.  There  remains  only 
the  background  of  Imperial  buildings  and  the  blue-gowned 
people,  upon  all  of  which  falls  the  idle  sunshine. 

All  the  palaces  are  silent.  Ninety  per  cent,  of  the  officials 
of  the  War  Department  have  vanished,  and  a  few  remaining 
members  of  the  General  Staff  meet  and  drink  tea,  but  do 
nothing  else,  having  no  funds  and  no  authority.  The  Can- 
tonese have  threatened  all  Canton  officials  on  duty  in  Peking 
with  all  kinds  of  atrocities  unless  they  abandon  the  Peking 
Government.  The  pressure  upon  Southern  officials  in  Peking, 
by  their  families,  is  great,  and  in  addition  the  Republic  is 
offering  opportunities  which  attract  them  and  they  go.  The 
various  yamens  or  Government  buildings  are  in  the  hands 
of  the  gate-keepers,  messengers,  and  janitors. 

The  Imperial  Clan  alone  is  the  paramount  institution  of  af- 

199 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

fairs  in  Peking.  Most  of  its  members  have  received  threats 
from  the  Revolutionists,  and  there  is  a  new  excitement  aris- 
ing from  the  fear  of  bombs.  Together  with  the  pressure 
from  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  to  force  contributions 
to  the  war-chest,  some  of  the  princes  under  this  apprehen- 
sion prepare  to  flee.  The  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  orders 
that  none'  of  them  are  to  leave  Peking. 

Peking  already  has  many  republican  and  revolutionary 
agents,  and  is  becoming  a  centre  of  low  conspirators  and 
assassins.  The  alarmed  princes  resolve  to  advise  the  Throne 
to  retire  at  once  to  Jehol. 

The  Court  now  receives  from  the  Republic  at  Nanking 
an  offer  of  terms  for  its  abdication.  The  Emperor  will  be 
treated  with  dignity  such  as  a  sovereign  of  a  foreign  nation 
would  receive  in  China ;  the  Court  will  be  allowed  to  reside 
at  the  Summer  Palace ;  the  Emperor  will  receive  a  liberal  al- 
lowance; the  ancestral  mausoleums  and  temples  will  be  se- 
cured to  the  Court  families ;  the  Imperial  Family  will  be  fully 
protected  in  person,  property,  and  wealth ;  Manchus,  Mo- 
hammedans, Turkestanese,  and  Tibetans  will  be  on  the  same 
footing  as  Chinese;  the  Manchu  pensioners  will  continue  to 
draw  their  stipends  until  further  means  can  be  devised  en- 
abling them  to  earn  their  livelihood ;  restrictions  between  pen- 
sioners and  others  will  be  removed;  and  finally,  the  Imperial 
princes  will  retain  their  property  and  titles. 

This  awakens  new  discussions.  The  division  among  the 
princes  continues.  The  Mongol  princes  demur  to  the  proposal 
of  abdication  and  are  said  to  have  formed  a  party  with  the 
Manchu  princes  Yu  Lang,  Kung,  and  Tsai  T'ao.  But  the 
head  of  the  Clan,  Prince  Ching,  leads  a  stronger  opposing 
party  that  has  already  considered  all  the  circumstances  of  ab- 
dication. January  13,  Prince  Chun,  the  ex-Regent,  on  behalf 
of  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  and  the  venerable  leader 
Prince  Ching,  goes  in 'person  to  consult  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  about 
the  Republic's  proposal. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  impresses  upon  the  ex-Regent  the  hope- 
lessness of  the  situation  by  again  regretting  his  inability  to 
suppress  the  revolt,  and  dwells  on  the  paramount  importance 

200 


JANUARY    AND    ABDICATION 

of  uniting  the  country.  The  ex-Regent  shows  that  the  leading 
princes  and  members  of  the  Imperial  Clan  favour  abdica- 
tion. January  15,  Prince  Ching  and  Prince  Chun  meet  at  a 
conference  in  th'e  Palace  with  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  and  they  con- 
clude a  tentative  plan  by  which  abdication  can  be  carried  out 
and  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  will  be  enabled  to  unite  the  country. 
The  Throne  is  to  take  back  the  State  to  its  own  control,  form- 
ally accepting  the  resignations  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  and  his 
Cabinet,  and  in  a  final  edict  is  to  appoint  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
peacemaker  and  abdicate,  whereupon  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  to 
formulate  at  the  port  of  Tientsin  a  Provisional  Government. 

Seeing  the  edict  of  abdication — which  necessarily  repre- 
sents the  failure  of  his  efforts  at  pacification — actually  in  the 
process  of  being  drawn  up,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  hastens  again  to 
resign.  Not  so,  says  the  Court.  The  Throne  is  not  ready  to 
issue  the  edict. 

As  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  leaves  the  Council  Hall  he  is  between 
two  fires.  The  assassins  have  arrived  in  Peking  and  he  is 
marked  by  those  of  both  sides,  by  those  Manchus  who  believe 
he  has  been  a  traitor  to  the  Dynasty,  and  by  those  Revolu- 
tionists who  believe  he  stands  in  the  way  of  the  Republic. 
It  is  at  this  moment,  when  he  is  returning  in  his  carriage  to 
his  place  at  the  Foreign  Office  accompanied  by  his  chief  body- 
servant  and  guard,  that  the  bomb  to  which  I  have  alluded  is 
thrown  at  him. 

To  the  republicans  the  Court's  plan  of  abdication  meant 
a  delegation  of  the  powers  of  the  Throne  to  Yuan  Shih-k'ai, 
and  therefore  represented  the  opposite  of  what  the  republi- 
cans wanted.  They  would  not  agree  to  the  delegation  of 
power  by.  the  Manchus  to  anybody.  In  reply  to  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai  respecting  the  Court's  plan  .of  abdication,  the  Republic 
imposed  four  conditions,  to  the  effect  that  the  Emperor  must 
abdicate  and  surrender  all  sovereign  power;  that  no  Manchu 
could  participate  in  the  impending  Provisional  Government 
of  Qiina ;  that  the  Provisional  Capital  could  not  be  at  Peking ; 
and  that  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  could  not  participate  in  the  Repub- 
lican Provisional  Government  until  the  foreign  Powers  had 
recognises  the  Republican  Provisional  Government  as  the  suc- 

201 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

cessor  to  the  Manchu  rule  of  the  country,  and  until  the  coun- 
try had  been  reconstructed  and  peace  and  harmony  estab- 
lished. 

The  republicans  gave  notice  that  unless  these  demands 
were  agreed  to,  fighting  would  begin  8  A.M.,  January  29,  when 
the  armistice  expired.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  communicated  the 
Court's  whole  plan  to  the  foreign  Legations,  who  telegraphed 
it  to  their  Governments  and  proceeded  with  arrangements  for 
communicating  from  Peking  with  the  new  seat  of  govern- 
ment for  the  North,  when  it  should  be  established  at  Tientsin. 
They  thought  all  this  would  come  about. 

The  effect  of  the  republican  ultimatum,  and  of  the  bomb 
explosion — the  first  since  1905  and  only  the  second  in  the 
whole  history  of  Peking — was  to  upset  the  work  of  the-  Clan 
councils  and  again  to  demoralise  what  little  order  had  been 
arrived  at  temporarily.  The  chronic  condition  of  stampede 
being  restored,  Prince  Ching  and  Prince  Chun  notify  the  Pre- 
mier and  the  Cabinet  that  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager's 
approval  of  the  abdication  edict  is  obtained.  Nevertheless, 
the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  and  the  Imperial  Clan  confer 
with  as  much  indecision  and  confusion  as  ever. 

Following  the  bomb  explosion,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  claims  sick 
leave  of  three  days  and  attends  memorial  services  for  the 
dead  of  his  bodyguard,  especially  the  commander  of  his  es- 
cort. But  before  his  leave  is  up,  he  is  commanded  to  return 
to  the  conferences. 

The  situation  is  so  complex  that  no  elucidation  is  pos- 
sible. Distrust  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  in  Peking  culminates  in 
resistance  to  the  abdication  by  some  of  the  troops.  The  Man- 
chu soldiers  distribute  placards  calling  upon  the  people  to 
resist  abdication  to  the  death.  A  general  uprising  around 
Peking  is  feared.  The  Court  receives  appeals  to  devise  meas- 
ures that  will  satisfy  the  bulk  of  the  people  and  restore  peace. 
It  would  gladly  do  so,  but  its  despair  of  its  ability  in  that 
direction  and  its  belief  in  the  deluge  after  its  own  passing  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  it  offers  for  sale  the  treasures  of  its 
Mukden  palace.  Its  councils  at  the  Palace  are  persistently 
reported  "stormy."  January  19  the  Foreign  Legations  have 

202 


JANUARY   AND    ABDICATION 

all  informed  their  Governments  that  abdication  is  decided, 
but  the  Clan  councils  continue  to  dissolve  without  reaching 
a  decision. 

The  various  councils  and  conferences  are  almost  too  num- 
erous to  follow.  They  are  so  numerous  and  futile  as  to  bor- 
der on  hysterics,  and  the  wise  old  leader  Prince  Ching  calls 
off  his  partisans  to  allow  the  excitement  to  subside  in  the 
Council  Hall.  Profiting  by  the  lessons  of  the  attempt  upon 
his  life,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  employs  the  interval  in  taking  pre- 
cautions, and  makes  arrangements  by  which  in  case  of  neces- 
sity he  can  escape  through  the  Legations  and  by  railway  to 
Tientsin. 

The  ex-Regent  Prince  Chun,  as  father  of  the  Emperor,  is 
obliged  to  attend  the  almost  daily  Clan  councils  at  the  Pal- 
ace. But  Prince  Ching,  Prince  Pu  Lun,  and  Prince  Hsun 
absent  themselves  for  five  days,  leaving  the  burden  of  decision 
upon  the  reactionaries.  The  ultimatum  of  the  Republic  has 
abrogated  the  whole  plan  of  the  national  convention  to  decide 
upon  the  future  form  of  government.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  who 
has  not  left  his  house  since  the  bomb  attack  upon  him,  ad- 
vises the  Imperial  Clan  members  to  sink  their  differences,  co- 
operate to  raise  a  war  fund,  and  resist  attack.  The  Lung  Yu 
Empress  Dowager  accepts  the  advice  of  the  reactionaries,  and 
now  refuses  to  abdicate.  Her  position  is  that  the  Manchus 
are  acting  for  the  welfare  of  China,  which  in  the  state  of 
disorder  and  disunion  existing  would  be  left  without  a  gov- 
ernment in  case  the  Throne  abdicated  in  accordance  with  the 
demands  of  the  republicans.  It  could  not  abdicate  except  on 
behalf  of  a  united  country.  For  the  Emperor  to  throw  down 
the  government  as  the  republicans  demanded  would  be  to  act 
the  poltroon. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  what  the  Emperor  of  China  is 
doing  these  momentous  days.  He  has  "ceased  his  studies," 
and  his  Imperial  tutor,  the  only  one  empowered  to  reprimand 
him,  is  gone.  His  Majesty  is  domineering  over  his  constant 
companion,  eunuch  Chang,  or,  in  a  royal  dudgeon  over  his 
food,  throwing  dishes  at  the  serving-men.  In  two  years  he 
has  forgotten  his  alley  playmates,  and  from  chatting  with 

203 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

child-scavengers  in  front  of  his  father's  house,  he  has  turned 
to  frightening  the  Palace  birds,  or  chasing  the  terrorised  dogs 
of  the  Imperial  kennels  with  his  new  whip,  just  like  any 
other  boy. 

The  Imperial  army  and  the  emasculated  Board  of  War 
are  ordered  to  prepare  to  resist.  Manchu  reservists  called  to 
the  colours  in  the  camps  outside  the  City  are  drilling.  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai,  who  has  been  slowly  augmenting  his  own  defence 
guard  of  3,500  men,  begins  to  bring  in  larger  numbers  from 
the  ranks  of  his  old  army.  He  then  makes  a  statement  on 
the  subject  of  his  position.  He  is  now  proceeding  from  a 
desire  to  serve  the  best  interests  of  the  whole  people  of  China, 
and  not  of  one  party  or  the  other.  He  is  not  following  a  per- 
sonal ambition,  and  only  hopes  to  continue  in  office  as  Premier 
for  the  purpose  of  securing  a  proper  election  of  representatives 
to  the  national  conference,  or  by  other  means  ascertaining  the 
actual  views  of  the  majority  of  the  people  as  to  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  future.  In  view  of  the  attitude  of  the  republican 
leaders  rendering  a  proper  general  election  difficult  of  realisa- 
tion, he  desires  to  bring  about  peace  and  some  form  of  sub- 
stantial government  as  quickly  as  possible.  To  this  end  he 
would  be  willing  to  resign  and  turn  over  control  to  any  cap- 
able leader  who  would  effect  a  solution  of  the  situation  in  the 
best  interests  of  China. 

"I  am  not  fighting  to  maintain  the  Manchus,"  says  he, 
"but  to  maintain  law  and  order.  For  the  present  my  military 
plans  are  purely  defensive.  I  shall  not  attack  the  republicans, 
but  if  hostilities  are  resumed  the  Generals  at  the  front  can 
act  with  great  latitude  given  them." 

The  Court  fails  to  produce  the  war  fund  which  it  repeat- 
edly promised,  and  the  dissenting  or  reactionary  princes  sug- 
gest appealing  to  a  friendly  Power  for  aid.  Unable  to  induce 
any  of  the  four  capitalistic  powers,  France,  Great  Britain, 
Germany,  or  the  United  States,  to  loan  the  Imperial  Govern- 
ment money,  they  recommend  that  Japan  be  approached  on 
the  subject  of  aid.  The  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  consents 
to  the  princes  approaching  Japan  with  reference  to  finding 
out  what  can  be  done.  This  touches  upon  the  most  sensitive 

204 


JANUARY   AND   ABDICATION 

affairs  in  the  politics  of  all  Asia,  and  at  once  arouses  the 
Premier  and  Cabinet.  Persisted  in,  it  would  have  alienated 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai  and  could  not  be  supported  by  the  Lung  Yu 
Empress  Dowager.  It  would  have  been  a  larger  bomb  in 
Peking  than  any  assassin  might  explode. 

January  25,  Prince  Chun  excites  open-eyed  wonder  in  the 
streets  of  Peking  by  a  visit  to  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  under  escort  of 
an  immense  number  of  militafy  and  police.  The  lull  which 
followed  this  visit  and  the  calm  of  speculation  was  broken 
January  26,  when  to  his  surprise  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  created 
a  Marquis  by  Imperial  edict. 

The  title  of  Marquis  in  modern  China  is  always  associated 
with  the  name  of  Tseng  Kuo-fang,  who  "put  down  the  T'ai- 
ping  Rebellion"  and  was  created  Marquis  in  consequence  as  a 
reward.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  recoiled  from  the  proffered  honour. 
The  correspondence  between  the  Premier  and  the  Throne 
resulting  from  this  action  of  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager 
is  highly  interesting.  "I  am  personally,"  says  the  little  Em- 
peror, "in  receipt  of  an  edict  from  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dow- 
ager, stating  that  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  President  of  the  Cabinet, 
public-spirited  and  loyal  to  the  nation  [Throne],  has  achieved 
conspicuous  service  assiduously.  Since  his  entry  into  the  office 
[of  Premier],  his  meritorious  services  in  planning  and  laying 
out  the  national  policy  and  in  sustaining  the  situation  is  still 
more  grand.  He  is  hereby  granted  the  Marquisate  of  the 
First  Class  as  a  mark  of  exemplary  reward,  and  he  is  not  per- 
mitted to  decline  it." 

The  Premier  composed  his  reply  to  the  sound  of  a  bomb 
in  a  neighbouring  street.  General  Liang  Pi,  recently  appointed 
Commander  of  a  Banner  Corps  and  a  fighting  General  advo- 
cating war,  had  paid  a  visit  to  Prince  Su,  a  genial  Manchu 
who  had  become  in  a  sense  mediator  between  the  Premier  and 
the  reactionaries.  As  General  Liang  Pi  reached  home,  a  man 
having  the  appearance  of  a  soldier  of  the  Imperial  bodyguard 
approached  in  a  rickshaw  and  sent  in  his  name  at  the  Gener- 
al's door.  The  General  turned  back  to  see  him,  and  when  they 
met  the  caller  exploded  a  bomb  by  which  he  himself  was 
killed  and  the  General  was  wounded  so  severely  in  his  legs 

205 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

as  to  require  an  amputation  of  one  of  them  and  to  cause  his 
death  two  days  later. 

As  though  cut  short  by  the  explosion,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's 
reply  was  brief.  He  said  that  his  opinions  [abilities]  were 
humble  and  he  therefore  requested  the  rescission  of  the 
Throne's  honour.  He  twice  declined  it,  the  second  time  re- 
capitulating events  of  the  past  and  showing  his  failures.  Ac- 
cording to  the  replies  by  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  in 
each  case,  these  protests  only  proved  his  "modesty  and  worthi- 
ness." Notwithstanding  the  reasons  given  by  Yuan  Shih-k'ai, 
"the  said  Minister,"  said  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager, 
"has  single-handed  sustained  the  strain  and  saved  and  pre- 
served intact  a  great  deal  indeed,  in  spite  of  intense  difficul- 
ties. The  present  revolution  is  an  extraordinary  one,  having 
no  parallel  in  former  times,  the  said  Minister  in  preserving  the 
Government's  position  is  beset  also  with  greater  difficulties. 
During  the  last  several  months  all  kinds  of  distressing  cir- 
cumstances have  been  endured  [by  him],  therefore  he  is  more 
entitled  to  be  the  recipient  of  such  an  extraordinary  reward." 
To  reinforce  her  argument,  the  little  Emperor  is  made  to  say 
that  the  words  and  emotion  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  praying  for  Our 
rescission  of  Our  former  decree,  "are  very  earnest,  emanat- 
ing from  his  inmost  heart  in  good  faith.  However,  the  ex- 
emplary reward  has  been  bestowed  after  weighing  the  ques- 
tion and  regarding  it  as  a  most  suitable  reward  by  the  Throne. 
Let  him  respectfully  obey  the  respective  decree  and  not  again 
pray  to  refuse  it." 

In  the  meantime  much  else  is  happening.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
has  telegraphed  to  Wu  Ting-fang  asking  him  to  consider  a 
compromise  of  views  as  to  the  location  and  composition  of  the 
national  conference  to  consider  the  future  of  the  country.  In 
addition  Sun  Yat-sen,  powerfully  impressed  by  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai's  dangers  and  responsibilities,  affirms  his  conviction  of 
the  sincerity  and  bona  fides  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  leaving  the  way 
open  for  the  negotiations  to  go  on. 

January  27,  in  fulfilment  of  the  promises  of  republican 
agents  for  a  bomb  campaign  in  Peking  and  Chihli  Province, 
an  attempt  is  made  to  assassinate  the  loyal  General  Chang 

206 


JANUARY   AND    ABDICATION 

Huai-chih  at  Tientsin,  a  bomb  exploding  near  him  at  the 
railway  station  there.  He  is  uninjured,  but  the  would-be 
assassin  is  wounded  and  captured. 

There  is  plot  and  counterplot.  The  Imperialist  General 
Tuan  Chi-jui  from  his  headquarters  in  Honan,  where  he  is 
opposing  the  mixed  revolutionary  soldiers  and  brigands  from 
Shansi,  arranges  a  wholesale  refusal  of  the  generals  and  com- 
manders of  the  Throne's  troops  to  opposing  the  advance  of 
the  revolutionary  soldiers,  and  the  Cabinet  receives  a  signed 
ultimatum  from  forty-six  of  them  memorialising  it  to  this 
effect. 

It  is  the  greatest  bomb  of  all.  With  one  accord  the  ad- 
herents of  both  sides  exclaim,  "This  is  the  end."  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai's  friends  give  out  that  he  is  to  be  President  and  that  the 
whole  Cabinet  is  agreed  upon  on  the  lines  of  equal  represen- 
tation for  North  and  South.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  brings  up  eight 
train-loads  of  troops  from  Tientsin  in  anticipation  of  dis- 
orders. 

January  29,  bomb  outrages  are  renewed  and  bomb-throw- 
ers are  discovered  near  Tungchou,  twelve  miles  east  of  the 
Capital. 

There  is  now  no  armistice,  but  none  is  needed,  for  the 
Republic  has  conquered  the  generals  and  commanders  of  its 
antagonists.  The  Manchus  are  helpless.  While  the  various 
members  of  the  Imperial  Clan  renew  their  interminable  dis- 
cussions, the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager,  Prince  Ching,  and 
Prince  Chun  determine  finally  upon  abdication  in  accordance 
with  the  conditions  laid  down  by  the  republican  Government 
at  Nanking.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  gives  out  another  statement  to 
the  effect  that  he  is  ready  to  accept  any  solution  which  will 
guarantee  peace.  He  has  no  fear  for  the  country's  future  if 
the  settlement  is  the  fruit  of  reason,  truth,  and  justice.  He 
has  no  ambition  to  become  President  of  the  new  Republic, 
and  only  desires  the  establishment  of  a  stable  Government. 
Bombs  are  thrown  at  the  Imperialist  headquarters  at  Hsiao- 
kan,  destroying  a  railway  carriage  that  is  transporting  Im- 
perialist soldiers — an  obvious  protest  against  opposing  the 
Revolutionists.  The  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  issues  a 

207 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

summons  to  the  Cabinet  to  meet  in  the  Palace  to-morrow  and 
arrange  the  details  of  abdication. 

January  31,  the  Throne  makes  its  last  reply  to  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai  respecting  the  Marquisate.  It  merely  acknowledges  the 
receipt  of  his  prayer  of  "leave  to  defer  the  acceptance  of  the 
same  [the  honour  of  the  Marquisate]  until  the  present  situ- 
ation shall  have  somewhat  improved  [subsided]."  At  the 
meeting  with  the  Cabinet  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager 
announces  that  the  Throne  has  decided  on  a  solution  of  the 
situation  which  will  ensure  peace,  and  instructs  the  Ministers 
assembled  to  arrange  accordingly. 


CHAPTER   XIX 
ACROSS  CHIHLI  AND  SHANTUNG  WITH  POLICE  AND  SPIES 

JANUARY  28,  1912,  I  left  Peking  to  cross  Chihli  and 
Shantung,  to  see  what  the  "Flowery  Republic"  was  like. 
Before  leaving  I  had  tiffin  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  May- 
ers, English  friends  who  told  me  of  their  morning  ride  and 
the  almost  instantaneous  clearing  of  the  streets  from  the 
Drum  Tower  to  Morrison  Street  (Wang-fu-ching  Ta  chieh) 
to  make  way  for  one  of  the  princes,  probably  Prince  Ching 
or  Prince  Chun.  A  police  whistle  blew  and  the  people  of  the 
streets  were  gone.  The  distance  cleared  was  about  a  mile 
and  a  half,  showing  the  efficiency  of  the  police  of  Peking, 
which  Mr.  Mayers,  who  is  one  of  the  authorities  on  Chinese 
affairs,  calls  "the  best  in  the  Empire." 

The  same  thing  had  already  impressed  itself  upon  me.  In 
a  horseback  ride  around  Peking  I  had  found  police  and  gen- 
darme patrols  as  well  as  military  in  black,  grey,  and  blue  in 
every  street  and  at  important  buildings. 

I  met  Dr.  John  Ferguson,  my  travelling  companion,  at  the 
station  just  over  the  wall  that  forms  the  southern  boundary 
of  the  Legation  Quarter,  and  we  boarded  one  of  those  strik- 
ingly made-up  and  strikingly  peopled  trains  that  were  running 
so  frequently  between  Peking  and  Tientsin.  But  before  we 
had  an  opportunity  to  explore  the  crowd  in  the  coupes  and 
saloon  compartments,  an  awesome  accident  occurred.  As 
everyone  knows  who  has  travelled  by  rail  out  of  Peking  to 
Tientsin,  the  line  follows  closely  the  south  wall  of  the  Tartar 
City  until  it  reaches  the  eastern  wall,  when  it  turns  in  a  sharp 
curve  to  the  cardinal  south.  Here  the  train  suddenly  stopped : 
a  peasant  had  been  struck  by  the  locomotive.  It  was  a  short 
winter  day,  there  was  no  sun,  and  a  cold  wind  was  blowing. 
At  this  point,  still  within  the  walls  of  Peking  (the  Chinese 

209 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

City),  there  are  fields  with  groups  of  houses  here  and  there 
like  hamlets.  We  were  immediately  opposite  one  of  these. 
Before  I  could  get  out  of  the  carriage  a  police  whistle  was 
blown  from  the  carriage  platform,  and  immediately  a  uni- 
formed police  captain  appeared  from  this  outlying  hamlet. 
Every  one  of  these  hamlets  seemed  garrisoned.  A  score  of 
peasants  who  had  gathered  had  their  eyes  all  turned  to  the 
carriage  platform,  from  which  a  small  southern  Chinese  in 
civilian  dress  descended  and  consulted  with  the  uniformed 
police  captain.  In  the  meantime,  Dr.  Ferguson  and  myself 
examined  the  injured  peasant,  who  was  lying,  still  breathing, 
a  short  distance  behind  the  locomotive.  Dr.  Ferguson  gave 
his  card,  as  Director  of  the  Chinese  Red  Cross,  to  the  mys- 
terious Chinese  who  had  descended  from  the  train,  recom- 
mending that  the  injured  peasant  be  taken  to  a  foreign  hos- 
pital. The  card  was  handed  in  turn  to  the  uniformed  police 
captain,  and  we  re-entered  the  train  and  moved  on.  As  we 
left  the  Chinese  City  by  the  breach  in  the  south  wall  we  saw 
through  the  window  the  police  guard  drawn  up  to  mark  our 
departure. 

"This  is  Captain  Chang,"  said  Dr.  Ferguson,  turning  to 
me,  and  the  mysterious  little  man  doffed  his  cap  in  the  Occi- 
dental fashion  and  modestly  shook  hands.  "Captain  Chang 
is  an  old  student  of  mine  from  Nanyang  University,"  con- 
tinued Dr.  Ferguson.  We  asked  him  to  remain  in  our  coupe, 
which  he  did,  and  later  explained  to  us  the  working  of  the 
police  system,  now  a  modern  organisation.  It  had  in  fact 
been  developed  by  the  aid  of  German  police  masters,  and  the 
Japanese  detective  system  brought  by  Japanese  experts  to 
Peking.  This  latter  system  was  marked  by  its  infinitude  of 
detail.  Captain  Chang  travelled  on  the  railway  between 
Peking  and  Mukden.  He  had  just  been  over  the  line  to  Muk- 
den, and  was  now  starting  on  another  trip. 

While  we  were  talking  we  had  opposite  us  a  Chinese  of 
evasive  personality,  the  only  other  passenger  in  our  coupe. 
He  sat  leisurely  sipping  tea  from  a  cup,  now  and  then  filled 
by  the  train  attendant,  from  a  teapot  resting  on  the  portable 
table  between  us.  Captain  Chang  was  interested  in  him  and 

210 


introduced  himself.  The  stranger  proved  to  be  a  police  cap- 
tain from  Tientsin. 

"We  should  feel  well  protected,"  said  Dr.  Ferguson  to  me 
in  English  while  the  two  Chinese  were  talking.  "How  much 
slyness  the  stranger's  face  shows, — what  cunning  the  man 
must  be  capable  of!"  he  continued.  They  were  going  into 
detail  as  to  their  identity,  and  were  exchanging  notes.  We 
ordered  more  tea  and  the  cakes  and  confections  which  the 
Chinese  are  so  fond  of,  and  toy  with  at  their  leisure.  As  we 
sat  munching  melon  seeds  the  stranger  told  the  interesting 
story  of  how  the  bomb  was  thrown  at  General  Chang  at  the 
Tientsin  railway  station,  where  it  exploded  without  injuring 
the  General,  but  on  the  contrary  wounded  the  would-be  as- 
sassin. He  thought  the  bomb  campaign  in  Chihli  Province 
amateurish.  Its  futility  seemed  to  be  his  main  thought.  His 
opinion,  valuable  as  that  of  a  detective,  was  supported  by  the 
Tientsin  Chinese  newspapers,  one  of  which  printed  an  edi- 
torial strongly  urging  the  bomb-assassins  to  abandon  their 
campaign  on  the  ground  that  it  was  more  fatal  to  them  than 
to  their  intended  victims.  In  each  case  the  weapon  had  proved 
a  boomerang.  Five  bomb-operators,  it  said,  had  lost  their 
lives  in  the  attempt  on  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  the  would-be  assassin 
of  General  Liang  Pi  had  been  killed  instantly  without  even 
the  least  realisation  that  he  had  injured  his  victim,  while  the 
only  injury  inflicted  by  the  would-be  assassin  of  General  Chang 
was  upon  himself. 

The  train  was  crowded  with  officials  and  secretaries  going 
to  Tientsin  for  the  week-end,  to  their  families  in  exile.  Baron 
Liang,  a  well-known  Peking  mandarin,  was  aboard,  and  in 
the  saloon  compartment  there  was  a  large  gathering  of  offi- 
cial agents  and  Chinese  newspaper  men  from  both  Peking  and 
Tientsin.  Captain  Chang  moved  in  quietly  and  sat  down 
among  them  to  listen  to  their  talk.  Here  was  a  scene  that 
sharply  pictured  the  upheaval  that  had  come  about  in  Chinese 
society — the  breaking  with  the  Asiatic  social  system  of  the 
past.  The  Chinese  newspaper  men  were  playing  with  a  har- 
lot, of  Suchow,  one  of  the  two  cities  in  China  which  a  Chinese 
proverb  says,  on  account  of  its  beautiful  women,  reconciles 

211 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

man  to  this  world  until  heaven  is  reached.  They  were  a 
bright-looking  lot  of  men  and  well  dressed.  Wreaths  of 
cigarette  smoke  filled  the  upper  part  of  the  saloon  so  that 
the  heads  of  those  standing  up  were  in  a  cloud. 

The  woman  was  rather  fine-looking,  was  the  centre  of 
conversation,  and  her  replies  in  the  cross  fire  of  wit  from  the 
men  were  instantaneous.  It  was  something  that  rarely  occurs 
in  China,  where  there  is  no  indiscriminate  intercourse  of  the 
sexes.  It  was  even  a  violence  to  foreign  ideas  of  propriety — 
perhaps  the  idea  of  Young  China  respecting  the  West  and 
the  thing  modern. 

Near  the  end  of  the  journey  one  of  the  party  who  had 
held  aloof  from  the  frivolities  of  his  companions,  and  was 
more  serious  than  they,  came  and  sat  in  our  coupe.  His  pre- 
occupation impressed  Dr.  Ferguson,  who  remarked  that  here 
was  a  man  who  must  have  cause  to  be  nervous  and  anxious 
about  the  times.  I  noticed  that  the  most  interested  of  the 
merrymakers,  who  in  fact  held  the  attention  of  the  woman, 
was  a  powerful  man  dressed  in  fur  garments  with  a  fur  cap 
and  a  complexion  full  of  colour,  who  looked  as  though  he  had 
come  from  Mongolia.  His  reverberating  voice,  the  thunder 
of  the  train,  and  his  antics,  as  he  tried  to  keep  his  balance  in 
the  centre  of  the  saloon,  seemed  to  turn  the  scene  into  a 
Mongol  carousal  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Anything  which  re- 
sembled the  social  life  of  Mongolia  would  to  the  Chinese  sug- 
gest a  reversion  to  barbarism.  The  barbaric  licence  of  the 
scene  jarred  upon  the  sensibilities  of  at  least  one,  he  who 
sought  refuge  in  our  coupe. 

The  unknown  police  captain  left  the  train  at  the  native 
city  of  Tientsin,  and  Captain  Chang  journeyed  northward 
toward  Manchuria.  It  was  night  when  we  reached  Tientsin 
settlement  and  drove  through  the  dimly  lighted  streets  for 
more  than  a  mile  after  leaving  the  railway  station,  to  the 
Astor  House. 

At  no  time  since  the  Boxer  War,  1900,  when  it  resounded 
with  the  clatter  of  swords  and  spurs  and  the  clink  of  glasses, 
had  this  hotel  presented  such  an  appearance  as  now.  There 
were  a  dozen  American  officers  of  a  battalion  of  the  i5th 

212 


ACROSS    CHIHLI    AND    SHANTUNG 

Infantry  from  the  Philippines  gathered  in  the  foyer,  and  a 
number  of  distinguished  Chinese  refugees  in  the  halls  and 
brilliantly  lighted  dining-room.  From  our  table  we  could  see 
the  ex-Governor  of  Shantung,  Sun  Pao-chi,  toward  whose 
late  Capital  our  steps  were  directed,  dressed  in  foreign  cos- 
tume and  presenting  a  distinguished  appearance  at  a  large 
table,  where  he  was  surrounded  by  men  of  his  family  and 
suite. 

He  had  a  rather  heavy  beard  for  a  Chinese,  of  alternate 
black  and  white  streaks,  high  forehead,  with  thin  hair  left 
somewhat  in  pompadour  fashion  by  the  cutting  of  his  queue. 
He  was  a  man  of  distinction,  and  there  was  an  expression  of 
sympathy  that  showed  itself  in  a  kind  of  awed  silence  in  the 
dining-room.  When  he  got  up  I  saw  he  was  dressed  in  a 
long  frock-coat  like  a  typical  American  statesman  or  a  Lon- 
don business  man  of  the  last  decade.  He  was  tall,  with  a 
firm  vertebra.  He  impressed  me  with  the  realisation  that 
here  was  the  first  time  I  had  really  seen  the  anatomy  of  the 
human  clothes-rack  which  the  Chinese  mandarin  actually  is, — 
whose  movements  are  exactly  those  of  a  scarecrow.  I  do  not 
believe  that  anyone  unacquainted  with  the  "side"  and  swagger 
affected  by  mandarins  would  ever  have  noticed  this. 

I  could  not  but  be  continually  struck  by  the  circumstance 
of  so  many  flights  among  the  officials,  begun  in  the  case  of 
the  Amban  of  Mongolia — the  first  thing  to  impress  me  on 
entering  revolutionary  China. 

Sun  Pao-chi  from  the  moment  Shantung  Province  began 
to  wobble  and  proclaimed  independence  was  "riding  the  tiger," 
as  the  Chinese  say  of  the  mandarin  sitting  on  the  people's 
back,  where  he  must  keep  his  place  successfully  or,  if  he  falls, 
be  devoured.  He  had  followed  the  people  until  they  had 
repudiated  their  secession  and  independence,  and  until  the  sea- 
port of  Chefoo  turned  Revolutionist  and  the  Republic  forced 
the  Throne  to  negotiate  for  peace,  when  his  position  became 
too  complicated  for  safety.  In  this  sheltered  spot  at  Tientsin, 
in  the  heart  of  the  Foreign  Concessions  and  surrounded  by 
foreign  police  and  soldiers,  he  was  sitting,  safe  in  the  cyclone 
cellar,  waiting  for  the  storm  to  blow  over.  The  brain-storm 

213 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

in  Cathay  was  something  which  even  the  astute  and  experi- 
enced Sun  could  not  safely  weather.  It  was  one  to  which  the 
immemorial  Chinese  umbrella  was  no  protection,  and  in  which 
only  the  foreign  roof  was  rain-proof,  and  the  brilliant  hotel 
lights  rainbow-like  drew  a  magic  circle  of  safety. 

It  was  still  night  and  very  cold  as  we  drove  several  miles 
in  an  open  carriage  from  the  hotel  to  the  railway  station  at 
the  native  city  of  Tientsin  to  take  the  train  to  Shantung.  As 
we  entered  the  station  area  the  first  rays  of  dawn  lighted  up 
the  spot  where  the  bomb  had  been  thrown  at  General  Chang. 
On  the  train  we  were  joined  by  Dr.  Tenney,  an  envoy  of  the 
United  States  Government  detached  from  the  Legation  at 
Peking  for  the  purpose  of  proceeding  to  Nanking  to  investi- 
gate the  republican  Government  and  the  revolutionary  situa- 
tion. The  Government  in  Washington  gave  out  prematurely 
this  announcement  before  their  agent  had  reached  Shanghai, 
somewhat  to  his  embarrassment. 

The  train  was  warm,  and  soon  after  we  turned  southward 
parallel  to  the  Grand  Canal  the  sun  came  up,  flooding  the 
coupes  with  light.  We  were  the  only  foreign  passengers. 
This  was  the  German  railway  and  one  of  those  interests  of 
the  Germans  whose  influence  induced  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  to  send 
the  message  of  warning  to  Governor  Sun  Pao-chi  at  the  time 
of  Shantung's  secession.  It  furnishes  one  of  the  most  com- 
fortable railway  journeys  in  China.  The  Chinese  newsboys 
had  come  into  the  train  at  Tientsin  before  we  started  and 
our  party  was  supplied  with  native  newspapers. 

Early  in  the  morning  these  newspapers  were  explored  by 
us  to  see  what  the  Chinese  paragrapher  and  cartoonist  were 
doing.  An  article  on  the  bomb  campaign  was  accompanied 
by  a  cartoon  suggestive  of  the  terror  being  endured  by  offi- 
cials. "News  from  'the  four  corners  and  the  eight  sides/  " 
reads  the  headline  in  one  paper.  The  reference  is  to  the  table 
universally  used  in  China,  commonly  seating  four  and  capable 
of  accommodating  eight — in  Chinese  "Si  mien  pah  pien" — 
four  surfaces  and  eight  sides.  It  means  "Everybody's  say," 
or,  "Reports  from  all  quarters," — very  appropriate  with  re- 
spect to  Chinese  news,  which  depends  more  on  rumour  per- 

214 


ACROSS    CHIHLI    AND    SHANTUNG 

haps  than  does  the  news  of  countries  having  better  news 
communications. 

A  paragrapher  produces  a  satire  with  respect  to  the  con- 
ferring of  the  title  of  Marquis  upon  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  by  the 
repetition  of  the  phrase  "Yuan  has  been  made  a  Marquis"  in 
words  of  dual  meaning.  The  effect  is  fully  appreciated  only 
by  the  Chinese,  owing  to  the  subtle  power  of  Chinese  char- 
acter writing.  Another  paragraph  is  more  plain  and  will  be 
universally  understood  because  of  its  provincialism.  The 
writer  is  a  native  of  Honan  Province,  to  which  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
belongs.  He  observes  that  he  is  struck  with  the  fact  that  it 
requires  a  Honan  man  to  take  the  helm  in  Chihli  Province, 
but  that  it  is  not  apparent  that  the  courage  of  any  Chihli  man 
had  been  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  make  his  way  to  Honan,  or 
that  such  is  needed  at  the  helm  there. 

At  Tehchou,  in  Shantung,  we  passed  the  big  Imperial  Ar- 
senal which  was  transferred  from  Tientsin  after  1900  in  order 
to  get  it  away  from  foreign  garrisons  and  the  foreign-con- 
trolled line  of  communications  between  the  sea  and  Peking. 
It  was  now  between  the  Imperialist  territory  of  Chihli  Prov- 
ince and  the  Revolutionist  troops  with  bases  at  Chefoo  and 
Tengchou,  with  fighting  going  on  at  Huang-hsien  on  the 
road  to  the  capital  Tsinan-fu.  About  two  weeks  previous,  the 
Japanese  secret  service  in  Manchuria  observed  at  Feng-huang- 
cheng  in  the  interior  but  on  the  Japanese  railway,  as  well  as 
at  Antung  on  the  Yalu,  Chinese  strangers  in  numbers,  and 
reported  the  fact  to  their  headquarters  in  Port  Arthur,  from 
where  it  was  forwarded  to  Tokio,  Mukden,  and  Peking.  A 
week  later  about  200  Chinese  dressed  as  coolie  labourers  went 
aboard  a  small  Japanese  steamer  at  Dalny  belonging  to  what 
the  Japanese  call  their  "mosquito  fleet"  plying  between  ports 
on  the  Gulf  of  Chihli.  The  next  thing  heard  of  them  came 
from  Chefoo,  where  the  Japanese  skipper  reported  to  his 
Consul-General,  and  the  Foreign  Commissioner  of  the  Chinese 
Maritime  Customs  took  steps  to  confiscate  his  vessel  for  hav- 
ing entered  a  port  (Tengchou)  not  open  to  foreign  trade. 
The  Japanese  skipper  told  this  story :  He  embarked  200 
Chinese  coolies  at  Dalny  bound  for  Chefoo.  When  some 

215 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

hours  out  of  Chefoo  the  coolies  discarded  outer  coats  with 
which  they  had  concealed  their  Revolutionist  uniforms  and 
ordered  him  to  put  into  Tengchou.  When  they  arrived  in 
the  harbour  of  Tengchou  the  ship  was  surrounded  by  sam- 
pans and  the  Revolutionists  disembarked,  taking  French  leave, 
so  that  he  was  left  without  even  their  passage-money. 

Tengchou  welcomed  the  band  of  Revolutionists,  rose  in 
revolt,  and  became  the  Revolutionist  base  for  the  march  on 
the  provincial  capital  at  Tsinan-fu. 

At  evening  we  arrive  at  Tsinan-fu  and  are  in  the  heart 
of  a  province  that  has  Revolutionist  armies  on  both  sides  of 
it.  General  Liang  Tien-wei  is  reported  in  command  on  the 
North,  while  on  the  South  is  a  force  from  Nanking  sent  up 
by  the  republican  Minister  of  War,  General  Huang  Hsing. 
It  is  opposed  by  the  Imperialist  General  Chang  Hsun,  who 
some  weeks  before  gave  up  Nanking  almost  without  a 
struggle.  Travellers  have  brought  favourable  impressions  of 
Chang  Hsun  from  his  headquarters  at  Hsu-chou.  He  is  said 
to  be  a  fighter  of  the  old  Manchu  type,  one  of  the  "catch-'em- 
alive-and-eat-'em"  kind,  but  a  real  fighter,  who  has  said  that 
if  the  Throne  abdicates  he  will  gather  100,000  men  around 
him  and  go  it  alone.  He  "will  never  take  orders  from  those 
half-baked  fellows  at  Nanking." 

Considering  that  it  was  said  that  the  most  pronounced 
swashbuckler  libertines  of  France  were  his  prototypes,  his 
language  must  have  been  much  richer  and  more  picturesque 
than  this  and  altogether  too  lively  for  publication.  On  the 
eve  of  our  arrival  we  received  a  reporj  that  General  Chang 
Hsun  had  abandoned  his  army  and  started  for  Japan.  It  was 
agreed  that,  if  true,  this  fact  would  refute  the  favourable 
impressions  of  travellers.  Those  who  had  looked  up  Chang 
Hsun's  record  found  that  in  Peking  he  had  been  a  profligate, 
never  trusted  with  any  important  office,  and  had  been  always 
in  the  military  service  in  connection  with  the  old-style  troops 
and  knew  not  the  moderns.  He  had  frequented  the  lowest 
quarters  and  had  cultivated  and  corrupted  his  superiors  with 
the  most  sordid  offerings,  such  as  singing-girls  and  the  like. 
It  was  observed  that  there  could  not  be  much  expected  of  such 

216 


ACROSS    CHIHLI    AND    SHANTUNG 

a  man,  who  doubtless  had  nothing  else  in  him,  and  he  was 
certainly  not  to  be  relied  upon.  Then  Mirabeau  was  instanced 
as  a  combination  of  profligate  and  man  of  ability,  to  refute 
this  argument. 

The  successor  of  Governor  Sun  Pao-chi  was  trying  to 
keep  down  assassins  in  the  Capital  and  to  maintain  quiet  in 
the  province.  He  had  an  Imperialist  army  on  one  side  and 
Revolutionist  army  on  the  other.  It  was  no  easy  matter  for 
him  to  perform  the  conventional  mandarin  feat  of  sitting  on 
the  fence.  He  had  placed  a  censorship  on  the  press,  promul- 
gated curfew  laws,  and  was  harrying  amateur  revolutionary 
suspects.  At  the  same  time  that  he  was  forwarding  muni- 
tions and  men  to  the  Imperialist  army  under  General  Chang 
Hsun  he  dispatched  an  emissary  to  spy  upon  the  Revolution- 
ists in  the  northern  part  of  his  province  to  gauge  the  strength 
of  their  movements,  so  that  he  might  know  at  what  moment 
to  make  overtures  to  them.  We  found  this  emissary  on  our 
train  when  we  left  Tsinan-fu  the  following  morning.  He 
was  to  go  to  Tsing-tao  and  thence  by  sea  to  Chefoo,  the  Revo- 
lutionist base,  from  where  he  was  to  go  or  send  agents  to 
Tengchou  and  to  Huang-hsien,  where  the  fighting  was  go- 
ing on. 

We  followed  in  the  rear  of  a  detachment  of  troops  going 
to  oppose  the  Huang-hsien  movement.  Beside  our  party 
there  were  but  two  other  passengers  in  the  first-class  coupe. 
One  was  a  German  commercial  traveller,  and  the  other  the 
Governor's  emissary.  The  latter's  name  was  Ho  Ying-p'ei, 
formerly  Magistrate  at  Lai-yang  in  Shantung  Province.  It 
did  not  take  long  to  discover  his  identity  and  what  his  mis- 
sion was.  He  completely  lacked  such  information  as  we  were 
able  to  give  him  respecting  the  condition  of  China.  He  had 
implicit  faith  in  foreign  dispatches.  When  told  of  the  action 
of  the  forty-six  "generals,"  including  Chang  Hsun,  in  sending 
their  ultimatum  to  Peking,  he  was  flabbergasted.  He  had  not 
heard  of  it.  A  little  later  the  text  of  the  ultimatum  of  the 
"generals"  as  it  appeared  in  one  of  our  Tientsin  papers  was 
shown  to  him,  and  he  collapsed. 

The  question  of  moving  the  national  Capital  recurred  with 

217 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

the  republican  rebellion  as  it  had  recurred  in  every  other  out- 
break in  China  for  several  thousand  years  and  for  at  least 
a  score  of  times  enumerated  in  history.  The  republicans  now 
insisted  that  it  must  be  at  Nanking,  because  Nanking  was 
centrally  located  and  was  the  ancient  seat  of  learning  de- 
tached from  material  surroundings  and  corrupt  traditions.  In 
discussing  this  Dr.  Tenney  said  that  it  was  traditional  also  in 
China  that  the  Capital  must  be  near  the  border — that  is,  the 
Northern  border — and  pointed  out  that  the  region  of  danger 
still  lay  on  the  North,  just  as  when  the  proverb  "As  the  chou 
[Capital]  moves  eastward  the  Tschins  move  in,"  was  crystal- 
lised. 

In  the  minds  of  the  Northern  men  the  removal  of  the 
Capital  southward  would  be  followed  by  the  moving  in  of 
the  enemy  who  had  replaced  the  Tschins  on  the  North,  namely, 
Russia  and  Japan.  I  felt  that  we  were  in  the  atmosphere  of 
old  times  in  all  these  discussions,  and  looking  out  of  the  car 
window  I  perceived  that  we  were  passing  ruined  cities  on 
the  hilltops.  And  aptly  enough,  while  we  were  speculating 
upon  the  parallels  in  present  and  past  China,  and  while  the 
mandarin  spy  lay  in  his  coupe,  in  comfortable  safety  under 
German  protection,  reading  over  and  trying  to  fathom  the 
ultimatum  of  the  forty-six  "generals"  to  the  Capital  at  Peking, 
a  dweller  in  the  land  pointed  out  that  we  were  passing  the 
tombs  of  the  rulers  of  the  "Three  Kingdoms." 

The  tombs  consisted  of  earthen  pyramids  terraced  on  all 
sides  with  little  fields  and  dating  from  420-750  A.  D.  We  were 
passing  through  one  of  the  oldest  parts  of  China  and  one 
that  had  experienced  many  vicissitudes  of  politics  and  govern- 
ment. This  was  pre-eminently  China,  the  home  of  Confu- 
cius and  Mencius.  Here  Mencius's  famous  mother  plied  her 
loom  in  her  native  town,  and  because  of  the  town's  undeserv- 
ing state  "cut  the  threads  of  her  loom  and  moved  to  a 
worthier  neighbourhood."  Here  Confucius  only  a  few  hours 
before  his  death  stood  in  his  doorway  and  mourned  for  the 
political  state  of  the  world. 

The  emissary  Ho  was  a  charming  type  of  the  Confucian 
school,  a  very  large  man  with  an  inverted  egg-shaped  head 

218 


ACROSS    CHIHLI    AND    SHANTUNG 

and  a  sparse  queue  that  disappeared  where  it  looked  over  the 
apex  at  the  spectator.  He  was  about  forty  years  of  age  and 
had  enormous  jowls,  with  a  double  chin.  He  had  a  large  but 
refined  mouth  draped  with  a  meagre  bronze  Oriental  mous- 
tache. His  eyes  were  like  jet  swimming  in  amber,  making  his 
red  and  iron-rust  brocaded  silk  coat  appear  in  perfect  taste. 
When  he  took  off  the  coat  it  left  him  in  a  brilliant  blue  gown. 
He  was  the  most  impersonal,  detached  Chinese  gentleman  I 
think  I  ever  met,  utterly  mild  and  anything  but  the  revolu- 
tionary spy. 

I  was  detailed  to  invite  him  to  share  our  tiffin.  We  had 
a  steak  brought  in  from  the  buffet  by  the  Chinese  combined 
caterer,  cook,  and  waiter;  and  pieced  out  the  table  with  a 
suit-case  so  as  to  make  room.  I  found  the  "Spy"  in  his 
coupe  reclining.  "Wa  men  ch'ing  ta  j'en  chih  fan,"  said  I : 
that  is,  "We  invite  you  to  eat  with  us."  The  Spy  looked  con- 
fused, and  I  repeated.  He  gently  protested,  rising  to  a  sit- 
ting attitude.  I  insisted.  He  would  put  me  away.  "Please 
come,"  I  reiterated,  and  took  the  gentle  official  by  the  arm, 
leading  him,  still  protesting,  down  the  corridor  of  the  car- 
riage to  where  my  companions  were  sitting. 

To  get  the  Spy  to  eat  was  an  equally  ceremonious  and 
equally  difficult  matter.  He  never  did  really  eat,  though  he 
sampled  in  a  dainty  manner  such  as  only  an  immense  being 
like  himself  can  do,  our  foreign  delicacies  of  coffee,  and  pre- 
serves, and  light  bread  which  Dr.  Ferguson  carried  made  up 
into  sandwiches.  He  allowed  himself  to  be  occasionally 
aroused  from  the  state  of  preoccupation  into  which  our  news 
had  thrown  him — it  must  have  been  a  shock  to  him,  what 
we  had  to  tell  him — and  he  replied  very  agreeably  but  absent- 
mindedly.  He  was  a  joy  to  look  at,  and  to  listen  to  when  he 
consented  to  speak.  He  allowed  himself  to  be  persuaded  to 
taste  a  rather  hard  and  juiceless  Shantung  pear,  with  which 
he  concluded  his  meal,  and  resumed  his  Confucian  detach- 
ment and  reserve. 

The  "Spy"  had  finished  reading  the  text  of  the  memorial 
of  the  forty-six  "generals"  in  the  Tientsin  paper.  He  said 
that  this  action  was  final,  that  there  was  nothing  more  for  the 

219 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

Throne  to  do  but  abdicate.  As  for  himself,  he  said  his  family 
was  safely  quartered  in  Tsing-tao,  where  he  had  moved  them 
for  safety,  and  he  would  stay  there  with  them.  Later  in  the 
afternoon  we  met  and  passed  the  Tsing-tao  train  that  was 
en  route  to  Tsi-nan-fu.  It  had  an  empty  private  car  attached 
to  it,  a  fact  significant  to  Ho,  who  said  it  was  for  the  escape 
of  the  Governor,  his  chief,  and  he  collapsed  again. 

I  wondered  how  much  of  the  apparent  story  was  true.  As 
it  worked  itself  out  in  Ho's  mind  it  was  something  like  this : 

General  Chang  Hsun  had  not  fled  to  Japan,  but  had  only 
joined  in  the  ultimatum  to  Peking.  The  Governor  receiving 
an  intimation  from  General  Chang  Hsun  of  the  ultimatum  to 
the  Throne,  and  knowing  that  he  would  have  to  make  over- 
tures to  the  Revolutionists  or  flee,  had  sent  his  emissary,  Ho 
himself,  to  establish  communications  with  them.  Having  ar- 
ranged this  and  seeing  Ho  off,  he  was  now  bringing  up  a 
private  carriage  to  be  held  in  readiness,  so  that,  in  case  he 
could  not  swap  his  Imperialist  horse  for  a  Revolutionist  horse 
safely,  he  could  flee  to  Tsing-tao,  the  German  colony. 

As  we  neared  Tsing-tao  we  received  word  that  Tsi-mou, 
one  of  the  towns  in  the  neutral  territory  of  the  German  col- 
ony, had  revolted  and  gone  over  to  the  Revolutionists  and  that 
the  Governor  of  Kiao-chou  had  sent  troops  there.  Two  hun- 
dred German  mounted  infantrymen  had  been  already  sent. 
"Spy"  Ho  remained  quietly  in  his  coupe  during  the  rest  of 
the  journey,  and  when  we  bade  him  good-bye  at  the  station 
in  Tsing-tao  I  believe  he  had  firmly  fixed  in  his  mind  that 
his  chief,  the  Governor,  would  follow  by  the  next  train  to 
take  refuge  there.  Shantung  had  in  fact  gone  over  perma- 
nently to  the  Republic. 

We  had  just  time  to  hurry  across  the  vacant  ground  with 
Consul  McNally  to  the  dock  and  catch  the  Shanghai  steamer, 
and  by  starlight  in  Kiao-chou  Bay  we  left  Shantung  for  the 
Yangtse. 


CHAPTER    XX 
SHANGHAI    JUNTA    AND    WU    TING-FANG 

WE  went  up  the  river  Huang-pu,  leading  to  Shang- 
hai, in  a  cold  fog.  The  first  thing  I  looked  for  was 
the  new  Revolutionist  or  "rainbow"  flag,  of  red, 
yellow,  blue,  white,  and  black  parallel  bars,  which  I  supposed 
would  be  everywhere  displayed,  but  it  was  not  noticeable.  It 
was  not  until  I  reached  my  room  that  I  could  see  the  colours 
flying  here  and  there  from  the  housetops,  in  the  Shanghai 
foreign  city.  In  another  direction,  when  the  fog  lifted,  I 
could  see  the  river  with  all  its  shipping,  with  the  Chinese  war- 
vessels  that  had  mutinied  at  Hankow,  cruisers  and  torpedo- 
boats,  passing  up  and  down  at  intervals.  Up  the  river  lay  the 
foreign  warships,  German,  British,  American,  French,  Italian, 
and  others,  abreast  the  long  bund  or  quay,  and  beyond  was 
the  Chinese  arsenal  where  occurred  the  "fight"  that  gave  b'rth 
to  the  Shanghai  Republic  or  Independency. 

Szechuan  may  be  called  the  September  Republic,  Wuchang 
the  October  Republic,  and  Shanghai  the  November  Republic. 
Shanghai  had  only  to  sketch  the  "brilliant  success"  of  its  Sep- 
tember and  October  predecessors  in  a  note  to  the  consular 
representatives  of  the  foreign  Powers  at  Shanghai,  to  explain 
comprehendingly  its  acts  of  secession,  and  to  secure  foreign 
co-operation.  "Citizen  soldiery,"  fifty  quasi-belligerent  loyal- 
ist soldiers,  with  a  Krupp  cannon,  some  rifles,  two  machine 
guns,  and  a  3-pounder,  together  with  an  orderly  unnumbered 
mob  of  the  floating  population,  inaugurated  the  City's  inde- 
pendence. In  an  upper  room  of  the  American  Consulate- 
General,  where  we  overlooked  the  landmarks  of  Shanghai's 
republican  drama,  those  who  had  seen  and  heard  these  things 
told  them  to  me. 

November  3,  1911,  foreign  correspondents  and  others  went 

221 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

out  from  the  foreign  settlements  to  look,  and  found  a  band 
of  men  said  to  be  seeking  the  Director  of  the  Kiangnan  Dock- 
yard adjoining  the  Arsenal.  This  was  the  first  incident  out 
of  the  ordinary.  It  was  in  the  afternoon.  As  if  all  had  been 
prearranged,  the  two  most  prominent  officials  of  the  Dock- 
yard and  Arsenal,  Admiral  Wu  and  Mr.  Kuang  Kwo-hua, 
had  vanished.  But  outside  the  Director's  house  at  the  Ar- 
senal was  a  bodyguard  which  rushed  into  the  Dockyard  to 
meet  the  searching  party,  a  mere  crowd  of  roughs,  which  it 
fired  on  from  behind  a  hedge,  and  dispersed  it. 

It  was  after  4 130  p.  M.  and  the  place  began  to  be  filled  with 
people.  The  casualties  from  the  firing  were  like  a  small  inci- 
dent at  a  country  fair.  The  people  began  distributing  and 
tying  white  bands  and  white  handkerchiefs  around  each 
others'  arms,  as  though  volunteering  for  the  Red  Cross.  But 
no,  this  was  the  emblem  of  the  Republic.  The  soldiers  of  the 
Dockyard  Guard  and  the  people  of  the  crowd  mingled  in  the 
cordial  fraternity  created  by  this  white  brassard,  after  which 
the  crowd  and  spectators  left  and  the  Dockyard  was  locked. 
The  local  newspaper  said  that  all  Shanghai  "changed  its  alle- 
giance without  a  murmur  except  for  self-gratulations  of  the 
enthusiasts." 

Yet  there  was  still  the  affair  of  the  "fifty."  November  4, 
1911,  the  "citizen  soldiery"  of  the  Revolutionists  came  to 
take  possession  of  the  Arsenal  and  Dockyard,  which  had  al- 
ready been  morally  surrendered,  and  advanced  from  the  fore- 
shore side  with  the  Krupp  gun.  The  fifty  of  the  Arsenal 
and  Dockyard  Guard  received  the  "citizen  soldiery,"  firing 
upon  them  as  they  approached  from  the  Dockyard  side.  Al- 
though their  aim  was  poor,  they  brought  down  a  Revolution- 
ist leader  who  was  waving  a  long-handled  sword  and  cheer- 
ing on  his  men,  but  were  unable  to  arrest  the  "citizen"  ad- 
vance. They  broke,  and  with  an  equal  number  of  their  half- 
hearted companions  either  fled  to  the  Huang-pu  or  into  the 
country,  leaving  a  few  killed  and  wounded.  They  were  men 
of  a  company  of  Imperialists  sent  from  Wusung,  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Huang-pu,  to  defend  the  Arsenal  and  Dockyard.  A 
few  hundreds  of  the  old  quiescent  soldier-guard  inside  joined 

222 


SHANGHAI  JUNTA  AND  WU  TING-FANG 

the  "citizen  soldiery,"  and  then  the  mob  flowed  in  through 
the  now  bullet-splashed  gates  and  made  free  with  the  contents 
of  the  premises.  Only  one  official  was  found,  the  "Ammu- 
nition" Taotai,  but  he  was  not  molested.  One  after  another 
the  Arsenal  stores  were  opened  by  the  crowds,  who  satiated 
their  looting  propensities  by  carrying  off  hundreds  if  not  thou- 
sands of  the  Mauser  model  rifles  which  they  contained. 

In  the  meantime  the  fifty  who  had  executed  the  demon- 
stration of  resistance  on  behalf  of  the  Imperialist  military, 
perhaps  to  save  the  honour  of  the  army,  in  part  reached  the 
Huang-pu,  where  about  twenty  of  them  escaped  by  two  junks 
to  two  torpedo-boats  lying  in  midstream.  These  torpedo- 
boats  after  receiving  the  refugees  struck  their  Imperial  colours 
of  a  blue  dragon  and  red  sun  on  a  yellow  ground,  and  hoisted 
the  white  ensign  as  prearranged.  During  the  day  two  bat- 
teries on  the  river,  and  the  forts  and  powder-mill  at  Lung- 
hua — place  of  the  famous  pagoda  of  that  name — together 
with  the  forts  at  Wusung,  at  4  P.  M.  turned  over  to  the  Revo- 
lutionists. Everything  needed  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Revo- 
lutionists when  four  war-vessels  of  Admiral  Sah's  late  squad- 
ron from  Hankow  arrived  in  the  Huang-pu,  to  which  they 
were  driven  by  hostility  along  the  Yangtse  and  the  shortage 
of  coal  and  ammunition.  The  only  available  ammunition  for 
them  was  in  the  Kiangnan  Arsenal,  and  they  were  promptly 
counted  in  among  the  assets  of  the  Shanghai  Republic.  They 
did  not  all  fly  the  republican  colours  until  November  13,  but 
it  was  a  coincidence  to  go  with  the  fact  that  already  it  was 
decided  how  independent  government  was  to  be  formed  and 
what  men  were  to  carry  on  its  departments. 

More  citizen  soldiers  were  being  recruited.  Patriots  were 
imitating  the  Revolutionists  of  Wuchang  creating  a  white 
badge  for  a  regiment  of  martyrs.  The  name  "Dare  to  Die" 
was  borrowed,  while  the  foreign  Press  of  Shanghai  appro- 
priated the  style  "Death  or  Glory  Boys"  of  the  Hankow  for- 
eign newspapers  with  which  to  designate  them. 

"We  are  very  happy,"  said  one  of  the  "Dare  to  Die" 
soldiers  proudly  wearing  the  badge  of  martyrdom.  Some 
who  do  not  enlist,  send  subscriptions  to  a  war-chest  fund 

223 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

that  is  started,  one  Chinese  lady  sending  $250  (gold)  with  a 
note  saying,  "It  is  the  only  service  I  am  able  to  render." 

The  foreigners  in  the  Shanghai  settlements  cannot  make 
out  what  the  revolutionary  organisation  is,  but  are  trying  to 
make  it  out  from  the  various  letters,  handbills,  and  proclama- 
tions appearing.  The  British  unnecessarily  send  a  military 
guard  to  the  Shanghai-Nanking  Railway  station  on  Chinese 
soil,  to  protect  it.  But  November  6  comes  a  proclamation 
by  General  Li  Ping-shu  as  "Civil  Governor  of  the  Republic  of 
China."  He  speaks  for  the  two  provinces  of  Kiangsu  and 
Chekiang  respecting  their  grievances,  and  in  a  sentence  abol- 
ishes all  their  petty  taxes,  together  with  those  of  the  sister- 
provinces  of  Anhuei  and  Fukien.  He  calls  for  subscriptions 
to  the  war-chest  and  warns  the  people  to  strengthen  their 
position,  lest  they  suffer  the  fate  of  the  merchants  and  people 
at  Hankow  murderously  slaughtered  by  the  Manchus.  In 
response  to  a  circular  issued  simultaneously,  the  Chinese 
people  hang  out  white  flags  as  a  signal  of  their  allegiance. 

The  Military  Government  of  General  Li  Ping-shu  claimed 
the  recovery  of  Shanghai  for  the  Hans  without  soiling  Revo- 
lutionist weapons.  Feeling  the  responsibilities  of  government 
upon  them,  refugee  Revolutionists,  National  Assemblymen 
from  Peking,  and  others  hold  meetings  to  draw  up  a  "declara- 
tion of  independence"  and  a  plan  of  defence.  One  meeting 
adopts  resolutions  abolishing  the  National  Assembly  at  Peking 
and  annulling  all  its  past  acts. 

Shanghai  is  full  of  prominent  reformers  and  distinguished 
refugees.  Many  like  Jui  Cheng  have  come  and  gone,  but  the 
refugee  officials  from  Peking,  and  others,  are  here;  Chen 
Chin-tao,  Vice-Minister  of  Finance;  Mr.  Sze  of  Cornell  Uni- 
versity, appointed  Minister  to  the  United  States  to  placate 
the  reformers;  and,  most  distinguished  of  all  Chinese  in 
Shanghai,  Wu  Ting-fang,  who  long  before  saw  the  approach 
of  the  cataclysm  to  the  Manchus  and  became  a  permanent 
refugee  in  Shanghai.  Chen  Chin-tao  is  living  in  the  Astor 
House,  consulting  quietly  with  other  reformers.  Mr.  Sze  has 
begged  leave  of  the  Throne  to  delay  his  departure  for  Wash- 
ington, and  with  his  family  is  immured  safely  in  the  house  of 

224 


SHANGHAI  JUNTA  AND  WU  TING-FANG 

a  foreign  friend  in  Kiangsu  Road.  Wen  Tsung-yao,  hitherto 
also  a  candidate  for  the  post  at  Washington  and  an  able  re- 
former, is  here. 

Wu  Ting-fang  is  settled  in  his  own  mansion  in  the  rural 
outskirts  of  the  foreign  settlement,  where,  protected  by  the 
Indian  police  of  the  British  Municipality,  he  receives  many 
visitors,  foreign  as  well  as  native.  With  General  Li  Ping-shu, 
head  of  the  Military  Government,  these  chief  reformers  set 
up  a  department  of  Foreign  Affairs  that  as  a  matter  of  course 
falls  to  the  senior  diplomat,  Wu  Ting-fang.  The  fact  grows, 
nobody  knows  how,  until  from  an  appointment  by  local  re- 
publicans it  is  announced  that  he  is  Secretary  for  Foreign 
Affairs  under  the  whole  revolutionary  regime. 

I  am  told  that  in  answer  to  a  question  as  to  whether  this 
was  true,  he  asked,  "Who  has  appointed  me  ?"  He  questioned 
his  own  appointment,  and  was  seeking  a  clue  to  what  was 
going  to  come  out  of  the  rapidly  spreading  revolutionary 
movement.  He  was  in  fact  one  of  those  whom  the  times 
produced  as  its  leaders.  I  have  regarded  Wu  Ting-fang  as  a 
pure  opportunist  in  the  rebellion  whose  talents  made  it  incum- 
bent upon  him  to  seize  upon  whatever  kicking  leg  he  could, 
in  the  scrimmage.  He  did  this,  and  having  found  that  it 
brought  to  him  the  portfolio  of  Foreign  Affairs,  with  the 
genius  of  a  practised  Revolutionist,  he  expanded  it  to  its 
widest  dimensions. 

In  an  expression  of  his  views  published  November  8  he  is 
mentally  rummaging  among  revolutionary  possibilities.  He 
says  that  "if  the  present  movement  succeeds,  it  will  have  to 
be  decided  whether  there  is  to  be  a  constitutional  monarchy 
or  whether  the  country  will  become  a  republic.  If  a  republic, 
it  will  be  modelled  upon  the  lines  partly  of  the  United  States 
and  partly  on  those  of  the  German  Federation."  1 

At  this  time,  less  than  a  week  after  the  Shanghai  revolt, 
he  opposes  any  definite  announcement  until  all  the  provinces 
can  co-operate  in  a  decision.  The  movement,  however,  had 
already  gone  so  far  that  "many  who  disliked  it  at  first  were 
won  over,  and  few  were  against  it."  He  was  evidently  in 

*N.  C.  Daily  News. 

225 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

doubt  as  to  its  final  success,  beyond  the  certainty  that  in  any 
case  it  was  for  the  good  of  the  country.  This  was  evidently 
the  timidity  of  one  who  had  been  in  retirement,  as  well  as 
of  one  who  was  doubtful  of  his  credentials.  Before  another 
week  Wu  Ting-fang  stated  that  he  was  prepared  to  represent 
all  republican  provinces  in  all  matters  relating  to  foreign  af- 
fairs, and  disclaimed  the  obvious  fact  that  his  appointment 
was  merely  a  provincial  one,  and  asserted  that  it  was  national. 
With  a  grand  revolutionary  flourish  such  as  he  became  more 
and  more  skilful  in  making,  he  delivered  himself  of  the  mag- 
nificent assertion  that  the  provinces  from  Kuangtung  to  Chihli 
and  Shantung  to  Szechuan  had  confirmed  his  selection  as  head 
of  Foreign  Affairs — a  figure  which  in  view  of  Wu  Ting- 
fang's  long  American  experience  suggests  the  Americanism, 
"Maine  to  California — the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Gulf."  He 
claimed  all  of  China  proper,  and  said  that  within  a  few  days 
representatives  from  all  the  belligerent  provinces  would 
convene  in  Shanghai  and  form  a  provisional  government. 
"China,"  he  proclaimed,  "is  thoroughly  united." 

A  "boy  wonder"  is  often  as  nothing  to  a  clever  young 
man  of  seventy  odd  like  Wu  Ting-fang,  who  has  promised  to 
visit  Washington,  D.  C,  in  the  flesh  in  1959.  He  was  making 
for  himself  a  permanent  place  in  the  Chinese  Revolution. 
Historians  will  say  that  the  credit  which  he  deserves  is  consid- 
erable. He  was  one  of  those  mandarins  who  knew  the  dan- 
gers surrounding  the  leaders,  freely  confessed  his  fear,  and 
without  possessing  the  actual  backing  which  he  so  positively 
claimed,  worked  steadily  ahead.  He  "rushed  in  where  angels 
feared  to  tread,"  but  knew  he  was  a — Russian.  In  this  he 
seemed  to  the  outsider  to  be  like  the  late  enemies  of  Japan, 
who  had  to  rush  out  again.  But  this  was  not  the  case  with 
Wu  Ting-fang.  From  his  vantage  in  Shanghai,  where  he  was 
600  miles  from  President  Li  Yuan-hung  and  out  of  reach  of 
Sun  Yat-sen,  who  at  the  first  opportunity,  when  he  reached 
Hongkong  in  December,  disclaimed  Wu's  activity  as  having 
no  authoritative  sanction  from  the  Revolution,  he  pushed  for- 
ward undaunted.  Shaping  his  course  by  the  obvious  require- 
ments of  the  Republic,  his  ideas  were  actually  admitted  to  be 

226 


SHANGHAI  JUNTA  AND  WU  TING-FANG 

in  accordance  with  what  the  Li  Yuan-hung  Revolutionists  and 
the  Sun  Yat-sen  Republicans  wanted,  and  the  leaders  of  these 
parties  saw  no  reason  for  stopping  them.  He  put  the  dragon 
through  its  paces.  He  executed  some  remarkable  acts,  creat- 
ing amazement  at  the  time,  but  which  largely  command  the 
approval  of  scoffers  and  historians  alike. 

With  those  associated  with  him  he  indicted  the  Manchus, 
he  challenged  them  to  abdicate,  and  he  clamorously  demanded 
recognition  of  the  Powers.  November  n  he  published  an 
appeal  to  the  Prince  Regent  to  abdicate,  wilily  turning  the 
Prince  Regent's  own  weapons  against  the  latter.  "Your 
Highness,"  he  begins,  "since  the  risings  in  Szechuan  and 
Hupeh,  the  issuance  of  the  self-accusation  [penitential]  decree 
was  immediately  followed  by  excesses  in  the  form  of  an  atroc- 
ious murder  of.  human  beings  culminating  in  the  secession 
without  a  struggle  of  more  than  ten  provinces  within  ten 
days."  He  tells  the  Prince  Regent  that  aside  from  "repub- 
licanism" there  is  no  way  to  avoid  the  sacrifice  of  human 
lives,  a  circumstance  in  which  neither  the  public  nor  for- 
eigners disagree,  therefore  the  monarchical  form  of  govern- 
ment cannot  possibly  meet  with  toleration  in  the  future  of 
China.  "In  the  interest  of  the  Emperor  and  Your  Highness," 
continues  the  wily  diplomat,  "you  should  just  now  regard 
yourself  as  Yao  or  Shun  [Emperors  of  the  past  who  abdi- 
cated]. ...  If  you  will  but  wake  up  and  change  your  atti- 
tude, and  co-operate  in  'republicanising  China,'  treating  the 
citizens  with  justice  and  with  consideration,  as  the  civilisa- 
tion of  the  world  demands,  the  citizens  doubtless  will  be  able 
to  show  you  every  courtesy  in  return,  with  due  regard  to 
your  living  in  wealth  and  honour  as  becomes  the  Imperial 
Household,  the  peace  and  safety  of  the  Manchu  Clans  being 
not  excluded  from  our  aims." 

Having  made  his  most  powerful  appeal  to  the  cupidity  of 
the  already  terrorised  and  helpless  Prince  Regent,  he  hammers 
it  down  with  this  threat :  "Otherwise  the  curse  of  war  will 
be  prolonged  and  extended,  and  the  hatred  accumulated  and 
intensified.  Since  the  atrocity  [massacre  at  Hankow]  in- 
dulged in  by  the  Northern  Army  has  been  so  inhuman,  how 

227 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

can  it  be  possible  for  the  Great  Seat  to  exist  alone?"  The 
conclusion  is  a  supplication :  "We,  Ting-fang  and  others, 
cannot  sit  by  and  view  our  affairs  in  ease,  therefore  we  pre- 
sume to  tender  you  this  our  final  faithful  advice.  Our  voice 
is  hoarse,  and  our  tears  exhausted,  and  no  more  can  be  said." 

Taken  out  of  their  time  and  environment  and  thus  an- 
alysed apart  from  the  circumstances  in  which  they  were  de- 
vised, these  acts  of  Wu  Ting-fang  nevertheless  stand  the  test 
of  criticism.  "Ting-fang,"  as  he  humbly  calls  himself,  was 
the  first  to  recommend  abdication  to  the  Regent,  which  events 
proved  was  sound  advice.  It  was  three  months  before  his 
advice  was  acted  on.  No  one  can  deny  that  courage  and 
wisdom  came  to  him  early.  Being  to  the  foreign  Powers  the 
outstanding  figure  in  the  Republic  and  claiming  the  authority 
of  nearly  all  China  as  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  he  con- 
stituted a  material  threat  to  the  Prince  Regent  and  the  Im- 
perial Government.  He  made  almost  frenzied  use  of  this  po- 
sition, first  lambasting  the  Prince  Regent  and  the  Manchu 
Dynasty  and  then  berating  the  Powers,  the  first  because  it 
would  not  abdicate  and  "republicanise"  the  Empire,  the  latter 
because  they  would  not  recognise  "the  Republic."  He  first 
claimed  eleven  provinces  and  then  fourteen,  and  exclaimed, 
"Why  don't  you  recognise  us?" 

"Whom  do  you  mean  by  'us'?"  asked  the  listener,  one  of 
the  foreign  correspondents. 

Hesitating  only  a  moment,  he  said:  "Why,  why,  Me, 
recognise  Me." 

Wu  Ting-fang  is  a  philosopher  and  disputant.  Being  a 
good  disputant,  he  knows  that  Me  and  Us  in  politics  mean 
one  and  the  same  thing.  He  was  perfectly  honest  in  wanting 
himself  recognised.  If  he  could  get  himself  recognised  by 
the  foreign  Powers,  it  would  give  him  perhaps  his  first  real 
credentials.  Even  yet  he  is  not  able  to  prove  that  he  has  any 
credentials  from  the  provinces  which  he  claims  belong  to  the 
"Republic."  He  is  perfectly  honest  in  cajoling  them  while 
he  lambasts  the  foreign  Powers  and  the  Manchu  Government. 
If  he  can  only  accomplish  something  he  will  be  satisfied,  and 
his  position  in  history  will  be  secure. 

228 


SHANGHAI  JUNTA  AND  WU  TING-FANG 

He  has  associated  with  him  three  countrymen,  including 
Wen  Tsung-yao,  an  American  university  graduate.  Novem- 
ber 14,  with  the  latter  he  frames  a  letter  of  explanation  and 
appeal  to  foreigners  in  which  he  tells  the  Manchus  what  he 
thinks  of  them  as  frankly  as  he  had  expressed  himself  to  the 
Prince  Regent.  "The  Manchu  Government,"  he  says,  "has 
in  the  course  of  its  dominance  of  China  demonstrated  its 
incapacity  to  rule  its  people  or  conduct  the  affairs  of  the 
nation  in  a  manner  compatible  with  the  forward  movement 
signalising  the  modern  history  and  development  of  the  civil- 
ised world.  The  Manchu  Dynasty  has  by  its  benighted  con- 
ceptions and  barbaric  leanings  brought  China  to  a  position  of 
degradation.  The  Nation  is  scorned,"  continues  his  joint 
declaration,  "and  its  institutions  and  general  retrogressive 
policy  are  the  subjects  of  contempt.  .  .  . 

"The  Manchu  Dynasty  has  triumphantly  carried  on  its 
reactionary  policy  despite  the  strongest  pressure  exerted  from 
within  and  without,  until  the  oppressed  people  could  endure 
the  disgrace  and  the  contumely  of  it  no  longer.  .  .  . 

"The  Manchu  Dynasty  has  been  tried  by  a  patient  and 
peaceful  people  for  centuries,  and  has  been  found  more  than 
wanting.  It  has  sacrificed  the  reverence,  forfeited  the  re- 
gard, and  lost  the  confidence  freely  reposed  in  it  by  all  Chinese. 

"Its  promises  in  the  past  have  proved  delusions  and  snares. 
Its  promises  for  the  future  can  carry  no  weight,  deserve  no 
consideration,  and  merit  no  trust. 

".  .  .  The  shameless  destruction  of  life  and  property  that 
has  signalised  the  latter  days  of  the  Manchus'  attempt  to 
resist  the  termination  of  their  reign  is  but  their  characteristic 
valedictory  message  to  the  world. 

"To  the  Manchus  is  the  blame  for  a  continuance  of  hos- 
tilities and  the  perpetration  of  outrages.  They  have  received 
from  a  majority  of  the  provinces  an  unmistakable  pronunci- 
amento  of  the  popular  wish ;  they  know  that  their  race  is  run 
and  that  the  China  of  To-morrow  can  never  be  as  the  China 
of  Yesterday." 

Wu  Ting-fang's  place  in  history  will  be  largely  that  of 
one  who  has  added  much  to  the  gaiety  of  nations.  True  to 

229 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

his"  training  as  a  diplomat  and  to  diplomatic  precept,  he  pur- 
sues this  characteristic,  so  fixed  in  the  minds  of  foreigners, 
with  irrepressible  diligence.  The  last  two-thirds  of  this  docu- 
ment to  which  he  has  joined  the  name  of  Wen  Tsung-yao, 
who  has  done  the  work  of  writing  it,  show  its  real  aim.  He 
now  attempts  to  belabour  the  Dynasty  with  the  mock  weapon 
of  the  foreign  Powers.  Eleven  paragraphs  beginning  with  the 
pronoun  "We"  tell  what  the  "Republic"  has  done  and  is 
doing,  and  are  an  appeal  on  its  behalf  to  outside  nations,  and 
then  follows  the  appeal  for  foreign  aid  to  influence  the  Man- 
chus  to  abdicate. 

After  showing  why  the  "Republic"  is  entitled  to  recog- 
nition for  its  efforts,  Wu  Ting- fang  says :  "We  ask  our  for- 
eign well-wishers  to  unite  with  us  in  our  appeal  to  the  Prince 
Regent  to  abdicate  and  so  end  the  strife  that  is  now  shaking 
the  land.  For  our  part,  our  conduct  is  open  to  the  full  view 
of  the  world.  We  are  fighting  for  what  Britons  fought  in 
the  days  of  old ;  we  are  fighting  for  what  the  Americans 
fought;  we  are  fighting  for  what  every  nation  that  is  now 
worthy  of  the  name  has  fought  in  its  day.  We  are  fighting 
to  be  men  in  the  world ;  we  are  fighting  to  cast  off  an  op- 
pressive, vicious,  and  tyrannous  rule  that  has  beggared  and 
disgraced  China,  obstructed  and  defied  the  foreign  nations, 
and  set  back  the  hands  of  the  clock  of  the  world. 

"We  must  not  be  judged  by  the  past;  we  are  trying  to 
bring  China  into  her  own ;  to  elevate  her  to  the  standard  that 
the  people  of  the  Occident  have  ever  been  urging  her  to  at- 
tain, and  the  stumbling-block  to-day,  as  it  has  been  through 
the  past  centuries,  is  the  Manchu  Dynasty. 

"Our  foreign  friends  must  from  a  sheer  sense  of  fairness 
concede  that  we  have  the  right  to  win  the  laurels  of  freedom 
by  a  fair  fight  in  the  field,  and  to  avoid  the  rest  we  again 
appeal  to  them  to  use  their  influence  to  secure  in  the  Manchu 
mind  recognition  of  the  utter  hopelessness  of  the  continuance 
of  the  Dynasty." 

It  was  like  a  game  of  bowls  where  the  player  was  strug- 
gling strenuously  to  knock  down  a  few  pins  that  would  count 
most.  In  this  document  he  lays  hold  of  the  ball  marked  by 

230 


SHANGHAI  JUNTA  AND  WU  TING-FANG 

him  "Foreign  Powers"  with  which  to  bowl  over  the  Manchu 
Dynasty.  The  indefatigable  Wu  Ting-fang  is  doing  a  yeo- 
man's service.  Pending  the  arrival  of  Sun  Yat-sen  he  is  the 
chief  luminary  to  the  public.  He  is  anxious  for  success  and 
is  firing  at  every  target  a  Foreign  Office  commands.  The 
wily  old  diplomat  sitting  in  his  mansion  and  peering  between 
the  foreign  police  pacing  the  roadway  in  front,  is  somewhat 
exasperated  that  the  targets  do  not  fire  back.  He  is  his  own 
and  the  Republic's  best  press  agent,  and  he  hectors  the  for- 
eign press  correspondents  on  the  subject  of  recognition. 

The  effect  of  these  fulminations  is,  to  express  more  elab- 
orately and  more  subtly  the  real  and  imaginary  grievances  of 
reformers  and  revolutionists,  to  carry  farther  the  interpre- 
tations of  the  revolution  begun  by  the  proclamation  of  Li 
Yuan-hung,  and  to  not  only  give  the  reasons  for  the  Shanghai 
"Republic,"  but  to  be  an  expression  of  what  the  China  of 
the  future  is  to  be.  They  are  both  preceded  and  followed  by 
exhaustive  and  bitter  denunciations  and  indictments  of  the 
Manchus  made  with  intense  conviction  and  with  apparently  all 
but  perfect  sincerity.  The  expression  of  this  was  certainly 
untempered  by  any  lingering  doubt  in  the  minds  of  those 
who  framed  these  indictments  and  might  be  expected  to  know 
China's  history  best.  Perhaps  the  fact  that  they  were  a  war- 
cry  and  a  political  instrument  for  the  attainment  of  an  all- 
important  end  accounts  for  the  moiety  of  justice. 

The  loading  of  the  responsibility  for  all  the  evils  of  China 
upon  the  Manchus  was  a  thing  which  struck  me  at  the  very 
first  as  the  prime  incongruity  and  error  of  the  rebellion,  for 
which  the  Republic  might  in  future  have  to  pay  very  dearly. 
The  Chinese  will  appreciate  our  position  as  foreigners  and 
our  detached  and  disinterested  view  in  this,  that  we  cannot 
accept  their  wholesale  denunciation  of  the  Manchus  and  of  a 
Dynasty  certainly  one  of  the  greatest  China  ever  had.  The 
reasons  are  very  simple.  The  Manchus  have  been  reckoned 
by  foreigners  as  numbering  not  more  than  7,000,000,  and 
perhaps  not  less  than  3,000,000.  A  proclamation  issued  No- 
vember 9  by  the  "Military  Government  of  the  Republic  of 
China,"  in  a  complaint  against  having  to  support  them,  gave 

231 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

their  numbers  at  5,000,000,  and  the  revolutionaries  no  doubt 
have  not  minimised  under  the  circumstances.  It  is  obvious 
that  5,000,000  of  Manchus  have  not  appreciably  clogged  the 
Chinese  wheels  of  progress  which  bear  those  "400,000,000  of 
the  descendants  of  Holy  Han,"  named  in  the  same  procla- 
mation. 

But  these  and  other  reasons  are  not  so  convincing  to  the 
Shanghai  leaders  as  to  us.  Their  denunciation  of  the  Man- 
chus is  coincident  with  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  arrival  in  Peking  to 
undertake  the  preservation  of  the  Throne.  His  efforts  to  raise 
a  foreign  loan  and  to  conserve  the  North,  with  yet  the  nucleus 
of  a  powerful  army  apparently  loyal  to  him,  are  circumstances 
which  still  cause  the  wily  old  diplomat  at  Shanghai  to  lie  un- 
easily in  his  sleep. 

Afterward,  when  the  passion  and  resentment  had  subsided 
and  the  time  came  for  Wu  Ting-fang  to  take  a  dispassionate 
view  of  the  Manchus  in  the  atmosphere  of  conditions  in  which 
all  the  responsibilities  ever  placed  upon  the  Manchus,  and 
more,  were  upon  the  leaders  of  the  Republic,  he  had  changed 
his  expressed  opinions  more  in  accordance  with  the  facts. 

As  he  had  been  in  retirement,  away  from  the  battle-ground 
of  reform  at  Peking,  it  was  some  years  since  I  had  seen  him, 
— not  since  1908,  when  he  was  seeking  leave  of  absence  from 
the  Board  of  Justice  with  a  view  to  retirement.  The  story 
of  those  days  he  now  told  me  more  intimately,  unchecked  by 
the  restraint  of  official  fealty  to  the  Manchus. 

My  experiences  with  Wu  Ting-fang  have  always  been  in 
his  native  country,  where  he  has  been  subject  to  the  customs 
of  China  and  subservient  to  the  Court.  The  Regent  has  now 
abdicated,,  the  Government  of  the  reformers  had  been  organ- 
ised and  was  assured,  and  I  found  a  somewhat  different 
"Wu,"  as  he  has  been  familiarly  called.  He  was  still  the 
crusader,  known  to  his  wide  though  intimate  circle  of  foreign 
acquaintances  as  the  champion  of  vegetarianism,  a  doctrine 
which  he  once  carried  so  far  as  to  persuade  the  late  Empress 
Grand  Dowager  to  adopt  in  her  pursuit  of  longevity,  with 
the  result  that  his  enterprise  received  the  Imperial  rebuke. 
After  an  absence  during  a  term  as  Minister  to  Washington, 

232 


SHANGHAI  JUNTA  AND  WU  TING-FANG 

she  startled  him  with  a  tale  of  her  disastrous  experiment  with 
vegetarianism,  which  had  resulted  in  a  severe  illness. 

He  had  good  reason  to  be  generous  with  the  Manchus,  to 
whom  he  had  owed  in  his  appointments  the  best  he  had  gotten 
out  of  life,  and  whom  he  had  to  confess  had  tried  some  of  his 
prescriptions  only  with  disastrous  results,  notwithstanding 
which  he  had  increased  the  dose  to  a  point  where  it  meant 
the  extermination  of  the  Dynasty.  I  found  him,  notwith- 
standing the  restrictions  of  his  foreign  house,  surrounded  by 
Chinese  objects  and  dressed  in  the  substantial  native  style. 
His  chief  characteristic  to  me  is  a  vigilant  outlook  for  the 
latest  circumstances  that  are  to  govern  the  framing  of  his 
next  remark.  More  than  anywhere,  the  politician  in  China — 
the  oldest  political  environment — has  been  forced  to  operate 
along  the  lines  of  the  opportunist  and  the  sail-trimmer,  which 
have  been  the  only  visible  means  to  accomplish  the  little  that 
could  be  hoped  for. 

"Are  the  Manchus  as  bad  as  you  thought?"  I  asked  of 
him. 

Wu  Ting-fang  tilted  back  his  head,  a  characteristic  man- 
nerism expressive  of  the  Chinese  scholar's  expectation  of  re- 
ceiving the  benevolent  influences  from  Heaven.  He  replied: 

"They  are  the  stumbling-block." 

His  answer  blocked  any  criticism  of  the  joint  indictment 
published  by  him  with  his  own  and  Wen  Tsung-yao's  signa- 
tures. He  grasped  at  perhaps  the  only  invulnerable  point 
made  therein. 

"How  would  you  explain  the  obstruction  by  the  Manchus 
and  your  contention  that  Peking,  the  seat  of  the  Court,  is 
not  a  proper  place  for  the  Capital?" 

"It  has  its  advantages,"  said  he,  and  continued  in  an 
elaboration  of  his  own  experiences  when  we  had  known  each 
other  in  Peking.  "The  foreign  Powers  must  be  considered. 
They  have  their  Legations  there  and  their  treaties.  Also, 
Peking  has  the  palaces.  But  it  has  its  disadvantages.  The 
atmosphere  is  bad.  Atmosphere  has  a  powerful  influence; 
we  are  all  affected  by  atmosphere — we  are  unconscious  of  it 
and  yet  we  cannot  resist  it.  You  know  I  was  in  Peking — I 

233 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

was  appointed  to  office  there,  to  Vice-Minister  of  the  Board 
of  Foreign  Affairs.  Well,  I  went  there.  I  looked  over  what 
they  were  doing,  and  I  went  to  see  all  the  officials.  I  formed 
my  ideas:  'Here,'  I  said,  'this  won't  do — we  must  change 
this.'  I  even  had  my  recommendations  read  by  the  Throne. 
Nobody  disputed  me,  I  had  no  direct  hostility — they  listened 
to  me  and  even  agreed  with  me.  But  they  said  the  time  had 
not  come. 

"I  wanted  to  reform  finances.  All  seemed  to  agree  with 
my  recommendations.  These  were  referred  to  the  Board  of 
Finance  and  were  pigeon-holed.  I  was  discouraged:  I 
couldn't  do  anything,  and  I  wanted  to  resign.  They  wouldn't 
let  me.  I  sent  word  that  I  was  sick — you  know  that  is  a 
Chinese  custom.  At  last  they  let  me  off,  and  I  came  here. 

"I  got  off  on  leave,  and  I  thought  I  was  free.  But  one 
day  there  came  a  recall — I  was  surprised.  They  commanded 
me  to  come  back.  I  thought  it  over,  and  I  said  to  myself, 
'They  want  me  up  there ;  I  must  go  back.  But  I  must  change 
my  tactics.'  So  I  went  back. 

"I  wasn't  there  very  long,  but  it  was  just  the  same,  and 
in  a  little  while  I  found  I  was  becoming  just  as  they  were. 
It  was  the  atmosphere.  I  was  soon  of  their  opinion  that  'the 
time  hadn't  come' — of  just  the  same  opinion  as  were  they. 
Then  I  saw  the  danger  and  I  became  alarmed.  It  was  time 
for  me  to  get  away  from  the  place.  I  had  become  a  Con- 
servative without  knowing  it.  That  is  the  stumbling-block  of 
Manchuism.  I  quit  Peking  for  good." 

I  left  the  splendid  old  diplomat  who  had  in  his  old  age — 
youth,  as  he  calls  it — risen  so  magnificently  to  the  occasion, 
with  a  keen  conviction  of  the  essential  difference  between  his 
standpoint  and  mine.  "Will  the  Republic  find  at  Peking  and 
everywhere  in  China  a  vague,  indefinable,  but  irresistible  at- 
mosphere, an  atmosphere  of  unchangeableness,"  thought  I, 
"when  the  Manchus  are  gone?" 

Wu  Ting-fang  has  been  called  by  his  countrymen  more  of 
a  foreigner  than  a  Chinese  from  the  fact  that  he  is  foreign- 
trained  and  foreign-educated  and  has  made  his  career  entirely 
in  channels  of  foreign  influence  and  affairs.  Necessarily  his 

234 


SHANGHAI  JUNTA  AND  WU  TING-FANG 

viewpoint  when  in  the  Capital  and  elsewhere  is  essentially 
one  coloured  by  foreign  ideas.  And  the  viewpoint  of  nearly 
all  the  reform  and  revolutionary  leaders  must  be  the  same. 
To  the  republicans,  and  the  revolutionaries  before  them, 
there  was  nothing  good  in  Peking.  It  was  the  Gibraltar  of 
the  spirit  of  the  past  with  which  China  was  afflicted.  As  it 
represented  the  whole  obstacle  of  the  reformation  in  China,  it 
deserved  both  the  fear  and  the  hatred  of  the  reformers.  Li 
Yuan-hung  and  Wu  Ting-fang  as  well  as  Sun  Yat-sen  were 
right  in  believing  it  to  be  the  fortress  of  the  enemy  because  it 
was  a  picture  of  the  condition  of  China,  and  a  priceless  ob- 
ject-lesson such  as  it  was  recognised  to  be  by  Wu  Ting- fang. 
But  my  belief  has  been  that  the  value  of  this  object-lesson 
lies  in  the  fact  that  an  understanding  of  Peking  furnished  a 
complete  education  to  the  revolutionaries  which  could  not  be 
despised,  because  Peking  was  China  herself.  History  must 
show  that  the  atmosphere  called  Manchu  by  Wu  Ting-fang 
was,  in  fact,  Chinese. 


CHAPTER    XXI 

CANTON,  THE  GIPSY  QUEEN  AND  MOTHER  OF 
REVOLUTION 

THE  best  way  to  enter  a  city  like  Canton  is  to  wake  up 
as  the  machinery  of  the  boat  stops  and  look  out  of 
the  cabin  window.  Thus  I  looked  out  shoreward 
7  A.  M.  on  a  sky  of  boat-hooks  and  rain.  Crossing  our  steamer 
amidships,  I  looked  on  a  little  Pearl  River  instead  of  the 
very  big  one  my  mind  had  pictured,  but  on  both  sides  an 
immense  city  wherein  the  river  seemed  to  be  perishing — per- 
ishing from  life  and  boats  crowding  upon  it. 

Many  peoples  have  been  in  the  boat  business,  in  Asia  and 
out,  from  the  time  of  Noah,  but  there  is  no  place,  certainly, 
where  the  big  boats,  and  the  little  boats,  multiply  on  the  face 
of  the  waters  as  at  Canton.  Here,  at  the  largest  city  of  China 
and  of  Eastern  Asia,  the  boat-hive  has  swarmed. 

I  ate  my  breakfast  aboard,  catching  glimpses  of  the  British, 
American,  and  French  war-vessels  in  the  river,  and  thinking 
over  the  strange  history  of  Canton,  a  place  that  saw  the  be- 
ginning of  China's  foreign  relations  and  stamped  them  with 
the  sanguinary  character  they  have  always  retained.  Here 
was  the  beginning  of  foreign  influence  upon  China,  but  it  is 
hard  to  say  from  the  appearance  of  the  city  that  there  is  any 
evidence  of  foreign  influence.  Even  the  rebellion  that  has 
produced  the  "Canton  Republic"  is  only  the  immortal  Canton 
piracy,  and  rebellion  against  the  rest  of  China. 

The  chief  characteristics  of  Cantonese  to  foreigners  are  a 
fiery,  untamable  spirit,  brigandage,  and  piracy.  Their  authori- 
ties have  always  declared  themselves  powerless  before  the 
Canton  populace,  which  they  dared  not  coerce.  This  is  a 
reply  that  has  often  been  given  to  the  foreign  Powers. 

The  Cantonese  have  never  stood  for  anything  but  them- 
selves. They  are  the  only  Chinese  who  do  not  call  themselves 

236 


CANTON,  THE    GIPSY    QUEEN 

the  "Sons  of  Han."  All  other  Chinese  have  claimed  this  line- 
age since  206-194  B.C.,  the  period  of  the  Han  Dynasty.  The 
Cantonese  seem  always  to  have  had  an  indomitable  rebellious- 
ness, and  Canton  is  a  city  of  plots  and  conspiracies  carried  out 
with  utmost  desperation.  The  Cantonese  delight  in  the  super- 
lative and  the  extreme.  When  they  rebelled  under  the  style 
of  "Republicanism,"  which  closely  followed  the  revolt  of 
Shanghai,  they  formed  a  "Dare  to  Die"  corps.  They  were 
not  satisfied  to  adopt  the  term  from  their  Northern  brothers, 
but  called  themselves  the  "Determined  to  Die."  The  first 
were  merely  willing  martyrs,  but  the  Cantonese  were  des- 
perate for  death.  A  foreign  wag  in  Shameen,  the  foreign 
settlement  of  Canton,  dubbed  them  the  "Much  wanchee  dies." 

China's  ancient  seat  of  rebellion  was  glorified  by  the 
success  of  revolution  and  republicanism.  Canton  in  the  ex- 
treme South  is  the  centre  for  rebellion  within  the  Great  Wall. 
Though  it  has  never  been  able  to  change  itself,  it  is  neverthe- 
less the  Mother  of  Revolution.  The  whole  subject  of  revo- 
lution is  brought  up  by  mention  of  it.  Nearly  all  revolts  in 
China  from  the  "stink-pot"  and  cutlass  days  of  a  century 
ago  in  the  Canton  delta,  have  emanated  from  Canton,  and 
when  she  joined  the  ranks  of  the  republics  she  came  with  her 
old,  bloody  skirts,  and  scarred  with  murder  and  piracy.  She 
came  with  the  aid  of  the  outlaw  in  the  good  old-fashioned 
way.  April  8,  1911,  she  assassinated  her  Manchu  Tartar 
General  Fu  Chi.  He  was  shot  dead  in  the  street  by  a  man 
claiming  to  be  a  follower  of  Huang  Hsing,  associate  of  Sun 
Yat-sen  and  later  Minister  of  War.  April  27  her  people 
attacked  the  Viceroy's  yamen,  from  which  the  Viceroy  escaped 
and  fled  to  Hongkong.  August  13  they  attempted  to  assas- 
sinate Li  Chun,  the  Admiral  of  the  Southern  Fleet,  by  a 
bomb  thrown  from  a  housetop.  October  25  an  assassin  killed 
the  new  Manchu  Tartar  General  Feng  Shan  with  a  bomb  in 
the  streets  immediately  after  his  arrival  to  succeed  Fu  Chi. 
A  mass  meeting  took  place  ostensibly  for  the  protection  of 
life  and  property,  but  was  turned  into  a  permanent  Commit- 
tee of  Peace,  and  passed  resolutions  of  independence. 

Canton  was  in  fact  the  second  working  republic  in  China, 

237 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

Shanghai  having  only  carried  out  a  revolt  and  formed  a 
nucleus  for  a  government  of  all  China.  At  the  same  time, 
reviewing  the  events  of  Canton's  revolt  in  my  mind,  it  did  not 
appear  that  she  had  done  anything  essentially  different  from 
her  uprisings  in  the  past. 

I  was  the  last  to  leave  the  boat.  I  went  ashore  in  a  slight 
drizzle  of  rain.  I  had  never  been  here  before.  This  is  the 
home  of  Canton  china,  Canton  crepe,  ginger,  and  the  Ameri- 
can laundryman.  Reverend  Frank  Li,  a  product  of  China- 
town, New  York  City,  the  respected  pastor  of  a  Christian 
Church  in  Canton,  is  Assistant  Secretary  of  State.  Though 
his  mother  was  German,  he  identifies  himself  with  his  own 
race.  General  Homer  Lea,  who  knew  intimately  the  principal 
revolutionary  conspirator  Sun  Yat-sen  and  saw  the  workings 
of  Chinese  patriotism  in  foreign  countries,  told  me  that  no 
Chinese  abroad  deserved  more  credit  for  the  revolution  in 
China  than  the  80,000  or  so  Chinese  in  the  United  States,  be- 
cause of  their  unstinted  contributions  of  money.  If  this  is  a 
Cantonese-made  rebellion  and  revolution,  as  some  claim  it  is, 
then  it  is  a  monument  to  the  laundrymen,  truck-growers,  sec- 
tion-hands, miners,  servants,  and  shopkeepers  of  the  United 
States,  as  well  as  to  the  Cantonese  merchants,,  manufacturers, 
and  shippers  of  the  East  Indies  and  Oceania.  John  Chinaman 
— the  card-shark  of  Poverty  Flat,  the  cook  of  the  Union  Pa- 
cific section-hands  gang,  the  laundryman  of  Omaha,  the  stoker 
of  Callao,  the  Havana  contractor,  and  the  plantation  coolie  of 
Samoa — on  a  pedestal ;  the  hero  of  the  battle  which  Wu  Ting- 
fang  says  is  the  same  as  that  by  which  the  Briton  won  his 
supremacy,  the  American  his  independence, — what  a  comment 
on  the  worship  of  the  nations  around  the  dynastic  fetish  at 
Peking ! 

The  little  picturesque  stretch  of  Canton  between  the  boat- 
landing  and  Shameen  had  no  appearances  of  revolution,  not 
even  in  the  display  of  the  Republican  flag.  What  the  revolt 
had  been,  and  still  appeared  to  be  in  the  eyes  of  some,  was 
concretely  illustrated  by  the  island  of  Shameen  divided  by  a 
small  canal  from  the  vast  hive  of  human  voices  and  portentous 
sounds  called  Canton.  The  eastern  end  of  the  island  is  occu- 

238 


CANTON,  THE    GIPSY    QUEEN 

pied  by  the  French.  Passing  over  the  little  canal  bridge  into 
this  quarter,  I  noticed  nothing  unusual — no  guards  or  forti- 
fications— an  obvious  expression  of  sympathy  and  confidence 
on  the  part  of  the  European  Republic.  I  was  told  this  was  in 
accordance  with  the  desires  and  opinions  of  the  French  Gov- 
ernment. But  in  the  larger  British  quarter,  occupying  the 
rest  of  the  island,  conditions  were  quite  the  opposite.  When 
I  came  to  pass  from  the  French  to  the  British  quarter  the 
streets  were  barricaded.  Wire  entanglements  supported  by 
breastworks  of  sandbags  extended  the  whole  length  of  its 
mainland  side.  Indian  infantry  were  camped  in  the  fortifica- 
tions, and  behind  them  on  the  river  front  were  two  pieces  of 
artillery.  Machine-guns  were  mounted  in  redoubts  at  all 
avenues  of  approach.  The  quarter  was  under  martial  law. 

Shameen  offered  a  sharp  contrast  of  the  republican  and 
monarchical  conception  of  the  fitness  of  things  at  Canton. 
The  French  were  of  course  joined  in  their  sympathies  by  the 
Americans.  The  conservative,  hard-headed  British  consid- 
ered that  the  Cantonese  had  really  learned  little  in  the  seventy 
or  eighty  years  of  their  foreign  relations  and  were  treating 
them  as  in  the  30*5  and  40*3  of  the  last  century.  Shameen 
was  a  place  where  the  war-teeth  were  set  and  grinning,  and 
where  Great  Britain  was  observing  to  the  letter  the  injunc- 
tion implied  in  "Lest  We  Forget."  At  the  expense  of  being 
laughed  at  by  the  French  and  Americans,  the  British  chose 
the  safe  course  of  preparation  for  those  attacks  which  had 
continued  in  magnitude  at  intervals  up  to  1900,  when  Kip- 
ling's "Lest  We  Forget"  was  inscribed  on  the  embattled  walls 
of  their  Legation  at  Peking. 

Great  Britain  wonders  if  these  Canton  brigands  are  ever 
going  to  be  civilised  and  the  ancient  feud  with  foreigners 
ended.  She  is  guarding  millions  of  Chinese  treasure  both  in 
British  and  American  banks  here.  Back  of  these  island 
breastworks  are  the  yet  more  formidable  engines  of  war,  the 
foreign  gunboats  and  cruisers,  anchored  in  the  Pearl.  The 
whole  air  of  the  place,  notwithstanding  the  nonchalance  of 
the  French,  is  of  some  impending  surprise  from  the  resource- 
ful Canton  populace. 

239 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

The  visitor  naturally  wonders  what  is  the  meaning  of  all 
the  ominous  noises  and  hum  of  voices  that  reaches  him  from 
across  the  canal  at  Shameen,  as  he  sits  in  his  hotel  balcony 
or  walks  in  the  little  parks  and  boulevards.  It  seems  im- 
penetrable because  of  the  little  streets  whose  entrances  are 
obscured  by  the  street-life.  Mr.  Burkwall,  an  old  resident 
acquainted  with  the  construction  and  life  of  this  thing  called 
the  City,  became  my  guide  to  explore  the  region  of  these 
sights  and  sounds.  We  parted  from  barricades  and  guards  at 
the  outer  end  of  the  British  Concession  bridge  and  plunged 
into  the  City.  It  was  like  a  dive  into  a  stream  rilled  with  fish 
and  vegetable  wreckage,  where  we  were  borne  along  in  the 
arterial  currents  by  Chinese  mermen.  The  stone-paved  pas- 
sages were  exuding  moisture,  chairs  were  creaking,  and  chair- 
coolies,  water-coolies,  and  other  carriers  were  perspiring.  No 
place  seems  so  much  the  tangled  arteries  of  life  as  does  Can- 
ton. This  was  only  the  suburb,  and  but  at  two  places  did  we 
stop,  once  to  greet  a  fine  old  man  by  the  alley-side,  but  little 
of  whose  Cantonese  dialect  I  could  understand,  and  who 
surprised  me  by  saying  in  English,  "And  how  long  have  you 
been  in  China?" 
"Twelve  years." 

"I  was  in  San  Francisco  fifteen  years,"  said  he.  He  was 
the  best  kind  of  a  Revolutionist. 

"What  do  you  think  will  be  the  outcome?"  he  asked. 

"It  will  be  all  right  if  you  all  hold  together,"  said  I,  "but 
you  must  join  with  the  North  and  go  slowly." 

"Yes,  but  there  is  no  money.  That  is  the  difficulty.  We 
cannot  keep  order  without  money." 

"That  is  true  in  Canton.  Foreigners  tell  me  you  are  all  in 
the  hands  of  the  pirates.  But  Canton  can  do  anything — 
Canton  must  begin  all  over  again." 

He  sighed  deeply  and  smiled  brightly,  and  we  passed  on 
through  the  narrow,  lofty  aisles  of  the  famous  "Eighteenth 
Street"  into  the  narrower  newspaper  street  where  we  went 
in  to  look  over  the  Revolutionist  and  Republican  newspapers. 
The  predominating  theme  was  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  for  whom  the 
Cantonese  seemed  to  have  no  conceivable  use.  They  were 

240 


CANTON,  THE    GIPSY    QUEEN 

lampooning  him  in  these  Revolutionist  newspapers  as  a  mon- 
key and  a  tortoise,  the  Chinese  names  of  which  are  alike  yuan. 

The  Canton  Republic  in  fact  is  preparing  to  march  on 
Peking.  At  this  time  of  my  visit  in  February  the  country  is 
virtually  united,  and  it  has  for  some  time  been  decided  that 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  to  be  President  and  that  the  country  is  for- 
tunate in  possessing  such  a  man,  upon  whom  the  various  sec- 
tions of  the  late  Empire  can  unite.  Military  operations  have 
ceased.  The  Cantonese  ignore  all  this.  They  picture  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  carrying  the  Throne  on  his  back,  willing  either  to 
re-establish  the  Manchus  or  take  the  Throne  for  himself,  and 
meanwhile  crying  "Peace"  in  order  to  deceive  the  people. 

Through  even  narrower  lanes  we  quit  the  suburb  and 
enter  the  West  Gate,  and  mounting  the  walls  from  the  inside 
rise  like  deep-sea  divers  to  the  open  sky.  What  variety  of 
structure  and  colour  in  wall,  pagoda,  pawn-shop,  yamen,  hill, 
garden,  moat,  gatehouse,  and  all  the  buildings ! 

Under  a  sky  of  Canton  blue  and  fleecy  clouds  we  can  see 
all  the  noted  landmarks,  the  Five  Tower  Gate  House,  the 
Round  Pagoda,  the  Flowery  Pagoda,  and  other  structures 
that  in  old  engravings  made  Canton  famous  in  the  days  of 
the  clipper-ship  and  before.  We  look  over  a  kingdom  that 
has  fallen  into  the  hands  of  pirates.  The  piratical  army  that 
assembled  to  establish  independence  and  that  has  never  done 
more  than  scare  the  Viceroy  out  of  his  palace,  claiming  35,000 
strong,  has  fastened  itself  upon  the  merchants  and  gentry  and 
refuses  to  be  dislodged.  It  is  under  the  command  of  Liu 
Yung-fu,  famous  as  the  "Black  Flag  Chieftain,"  who  fought 
the  French  in  Tonking,  and  later  the  Japanese  in  Formosa, 
and  whose  name  spells  terror  wherever  he  is  known  in  South 
China.  He  has  eight  principal  chiefs,  .and  these  forces, 
though  they  have  never  fought,  are  demanding  pay  and 
arrears  of  pay  on  a  war  schedule.  The  money  comes  from 
the  merchants  and  gentry,  who  are  being  forced  to  find  from 
$1,000,000  to  $1,500,000  gold  per  month  to  run  the  Canton 
Republic. 

The  soldiers  have  issued  an  ultimatum  to  the  merchants 
setting  a  day  for  plundering  their  shops  unless  money  is  forth- 

241 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

coming.  The  chiefs  are  drawing  pay  in  some  instances  for 
three  times  as  many  men  as  they  actually  have.  The  City  is 
still  trying  to  prevent  additional  detachments  in  the  country 
from  marching  to  the  City,  and  it  has  in  addition  its  regular 
soldiers  and  militia  to  support. 

The  powers  that  be  in  Canton  are  known  as  the  "Seventy- 
two  Guilds  and  the  Nine  Charitable  Institutions."  They  de- 
vised a  plan  of  three  measures  to  throw  off  the  Revolutionist 
army.  The  most  lawless  (pirate)  soldiers  they  were  trying  to 
ship  North  to  the  Yangtse  and  to  Shantung  for  the  "march 
on  Peking."  Those  that  were  next  most  dangerous — the 
merely  hungry  class — were  detailed  to  work  in  removing  the 
City  walls  so  as  to  make  a  wide  boulevard  for  the  new  Capital ; 
and  third,  to  actually  pay  these  and  also  the  regular  soldiers 
who  must  be  the  stand-bys.  By  this  means  the  "Seventy-two 
Guilds  and  Nine  Charitable  Institutions"  expected  to 
raise  the  regular  soldiery  to  the  point  of  superiority  in  num- 
bers and  compel  the  piratical  recruits  to  disperse. 

After  the  first  companies  had  departed  for  the  North,  the 
piratical  recruits  refused  to  move.  The  "hungry  brigade" 
refused  to  toil.  We  observed  the  petty,  futile  results  of  the 
experiment  of  making  them  work  at  a  point  on  the  north  wall 
of  Canton,  where  for  a  few  hundred  yards  they  had  partly 
torn  away  the  crenelations.  At  this  time,  as  we  stood  upon 
the  scene  of  their  work,  only  the  third  of  the  three  provisions 
named  appeared  to  have  any  hope  of  success.  The  merchants 
were  fearful  of  the  ordeal  of  being  forcibly  levied  upon  by  the 
soldiery,  which  event  was  promised  in  a  few  days. 

The  wall  littered  with  the  fragments  of  its  crenelations  is 
the  first  material  trace  of  revolution  in  Canton  that  I  have 
seen.  But  only  a  little  farther  on,  after  we  leave  the  wall,  we 
come  to  a  famous  temple  to  Kwangyin,  the  Goddess  of  Mercy, 
where  the  iconoclastic  Revolutionist  vandals  have  destroyed 
all  the  shrines.  The  God  of  War  is  substituted  for  the  God- 
dess of  Mercy,  but  whether  done  by  the  priests  on  their  own 
account  or  to  placate  the  vandals  I  do  not  know. 

The  incident  was  made  the  occasion  of  a  strong  appeal  for 
religious  toleration  by  a  native  scholar,  who  pointed  out  that 

242 


CANTON,  THE    GIPSY    QUEEN 

this  was  one  of  the  reforms  which  a  New  China  must  adopt, 
and  protested  against  the  desecration  of  any  shrine  held  sa- 
cred by  men,  no  matter  what  it  was,  as  something  that  could 
do  no  good. 

We  passed  the  Viceroy's  yamen,  famous  in  history,  where 
occurred  the  attack,  April  27,  1911,  already  mentioned.  We 
approached  along  the  west  side  under  its  walls  by  a  narrow 
passage.  The  maze  of  houses,  elevations,  and  angles  seemed 
a  suitable  environment  for  the  labyrinthine  plots  perpetrated 
here  in  ages  gone  by,  and  for  the  attack  of  April  27  for 
the  purpose  of  assassinating  the  Viceroy  Chang  Ming-chi. 
Then  200  or  300  revolutionaries  armed  with  bombs  and 
revolvers  rushed  the  Viceroy's  yamen  and  burned  his  house 
within. 

The  Viceroy  was  probably  saved  by  being  in  his  office  in 
another  building,  but  the  revolutionaries  were  beaten  off  by 
troops  under  the  personal  command  of  Admiral  Li  Chun, 
commander  of  the  naval  forces  of  the  provinces  of  Kuang- 
tung  and  Kuangsi.  This  officer  hunted  them  down  and 
had  a  large  number  beheaded,  and  later  buried  them  outside 
the  East  Gate  at  Canton.  He  found  that  the  instigators  of 
the  attack  were  Revolutionists  from  the  Straits  Settlements, 
and  Hongkong. 

Following  his  attack  the  Viceroy  made  a  house-to-house 
search,  incurring  the  hostility  of  the  people,  who  in  the  gen- 
eral revolutionary  excitement  began  an  exodus  to  Macao  and 
Hongkong,  which  during  the  summer  numbered  from  100,000 
to  150,000  people.  It  was  not  until  August  13  that  the  revo- 
lutionaries made  reprisals  upon  Admiral  Li  Chun,  in  which 
he  was  injured  in  the  side  by  the  explosion  of  a  bomb  in- 
tended to  kill  him,  and  many  of  his  guard  and  chair-coolies 
were  killed  and  wounded.  In  turn  the  assassin  was  arrested 
and  executed.  In  October,  when  Wuchang  revolted,  Canton 
bred  rumours  of  her  own  rebellion.  Then  came  the  assassina- 
tion of  General  Feng  Shan,  October  25,  a  few  minutes  after 
he  had  landed  at  the  Government  pier.  Thirty  of  his  escort 
and  ten  spectators  were  horribly  mangled  and  burned.  Feng 
Shan's  charred  remains  were  recognised  by  a  bit  of  silk  at- 

243 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

tached  to  them.  His  mother  in  Peking  said,  "I  received  only 
a  button." 

On  the  same  day  the  mass  meeting  conducted  by  the  "Sev- 
enty-two Guilds  and  Nine  Charitable  Institutions"  to  form 
the  "Pao  An  Huei,"  or  Peace  Committee,  was  held.  Tung 
Wah-hei,  ex-Governor  of  Kueichou,  a  man  over  eighty  years 
old,  presided.  This  is  the  real  date  of  the  independence 
of  Canton.  The  "Pao  An  Huei"  passed  its  resolution  to 
refuse  requests  from  the  Central  Government  or  from  other 
provinces  for  troops  and  money,  and  to  hold  revenue 
and  conserve  resources  within  the  province  of  Kuang- 
tung. 

These  events  introduced  exciting  days  at  the  Viceroy's 
yamen.  People  were  fleeing  the  City.  Chang  Ming-chi  acqui- 
esced in  the  action  of  the  "Pao  An  Huei"  notwithstanding  it 
meant  secession.  Kuangtung  revolutionaries  in  Hongkong 
decided  for  joining  the  Republic.  The  Viceroy  decided  to 
flee.  In  several  meetings  in  Canton  following  the  declara- 
tions at  Hongkong  the  Republicans  won,  and  it  became  im- 
possible for  Viceroy  Chang  Ming-chi  to  longer  remain  in 
the  yamen. 

November  8,  about  midnight,  the  British  Consul,  J.  W. 
Jamieson,  helped  him  to  escape.  Followed  by  a  sedan- 
chair,  Consul  Jamieson  walked  to  the  Viceroy's  yamen,  out 
of  the  courtyard  of  which  a  little  later  the  Viceroy  proceeded 
in  the  chair  to  the  British  Consulate  on  Shameen,  accom- 
panied by  the  Consul.  The  next  day  he  went  aboard  the 
British  torpedo-boat  destroyer  Handy  and  went  to  Hongkong 
to  rooms  in  the  Hongkong  and  Shanghai  Bank,  after  which 
he  went  by  the  steamship  Roon  to  Shanghai.  Some  of  his 
associate  officials  left  about  the  same  time  by  other  means, 
and  on  the  same  day  a  mass  meeting  elected  Hu  Han-wen,  a 
young  man  about  thirty  years  old,  once  editor  of  a  Canton 
paper  and  later  a  student  in  Japan,  as  "Governor-General  of 
Kuantung  under  the  Military  Government  of  the  Chinese  Re- 
public." This  was  the  signal  for  the  raising  of  the  Revolu- 
tionist flag.  November  9  Kuangtung  became  a  part  of  the 
Republic  of  China.  There  was  a  loss  of  but  one  Chinese  life 

244 


CANTON,  THE    GIPSY    QUEEN 

in  the  final  action  that  severed  it  from  the  Empire — a  guard 
shot  dead  at  the  Government  Cement  Works. 

November  n  the  new  Governor-General  announced  to 
the  Doyen  of  the  foreign  consuls  his  own  election  and  respon- 
sibility for  protection  of  all  foreigners  and  foreign  property. 
He  said  that  all  matters  would  be  conducted  in  the  same  man- 
ner as  now  transacted  between  the  Military  Government  and 
the  China  Republic  in  the  province  of  Hupeh  and  the  foreign 
Powers. 

Canton  produced  no  doubt  50,000  "pirates"  to  respond  to 
the  call  of  the  Revolutionists,  but  perhaps  not  more  than 
20,000  were  enlisted.  They  came  from  all  parts  of  the  delta, 
uniformed  and  ununiformed,  and  armed  with  everything  re- 
sembling a  weapon,  from  rifles  and  cleavers  to  automatic 
revolvers  and  bombs.  Weapons  were  produced  that  must 
have  been  the  first  brought  from  the  West  and  no  doubt 
relics  of  piratical  attacks  on  foreign  vessels  in  China. 

Heads  of  the  pirate  clans  led  their  hosts  by  sign  and 
compact  through  the  fields  and  suburbs  to  the  City.  "Lamp- 
Chimney"  Lay,  who  governed  Honam  Island,  warned  the 
Viceroy  to  surrender.  The  Viceroy  did  not  believe  that 
"Lamp-Chimney"  and  his  superiors  and  associates  had  the 
forces  to  warrant  the  demand.  •  "Come  and  see,"  said  "Lamp- 
Chimney."  The  Viceroy  waited  until  the  "pirates"  entered 
the  City  gates  and  then  fled.  "Lamp-Chimney"  Lay,  in  the 
twilight  of  November"  8,  led  1,500  men  from  Honam  Island 
past  the  Canton  Christian  College  to  the  City.  Eight  or  ten 
other  chiefs  led  in  from  1,000  to  3,000  men  each.  To  add  to 
the  eclat  of  the  occasion  their  associates  in  the  delta  pirated 
a  British  steamship  and  killed  the  British  chief  officer. 

Ten  days  after  the  election  of  Governor-General  Hu  Han- 
wen,  the  revolutionaries  who  had  unsuccessfully  tried  to 
assassinate  his  predecessor  in  April  got  up  a  huge  parade  that 
marched  through  the  streets  and  outside  the  East  Gate  to 
decorate  the  graves  of  their  late  fellows.  The  pirate  element 
was  prominent,  and  the  mob,  which  was  dressed  in  a  riotous 
mixture  of  Chinese  and  foreign  clothes,  carried  all  kinds  of 
weapons,  with  large  quantities  of  ammunition  slung  in  duck 

245 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

jackets  and  bandoliers.  Men  and  boys  waved  drawn  re- 
volvers, rushing  here  and  there.  There  was  obviously  some 
organisation  of  this  mob,  because  it  was  made  the  occasion 
of  a  demonstration  against  Admiral  Li  Chun,  who  had  de- 
fended the  late  Viceroy.  A  part  of  the  mob  rushed  the  Ad- 
miralty building  in  the  City  near  the  river  and  disarmed  the 
guards  there,  and  later  Admiral  Li  Chun  received  an  order 
to  leave  Canton,  and  left,  after  writing  a  letter  to  the  com- 
munity to  the  effect  that  things  were  in  a  bad  way  and  he 
was  unable  to  do  anything. 

December  20  or  21,  just  a  month  later,  Governor-General 
Hu  Han-wen  followed  his  predecessor  to  Hongkong  osten- 
sibly to  meet  the  future  Provisional  President,  Sun  Yat-sen. 
But  he  did  not  come  back.  There  was  no  money.  The  troops 
from  the  country  had  not  yet  been  stopped  from  coming  in. 
There  was  a  conflict  of  authority,  he  feared  the  reckoning 
when  the  clamour  should  begin  and  was  afraid  to  face  it. 
The  Chinese  in  America  had  sent  $250,000  gold  through  the 
British  colony  at  Hongkong  to  support  the  Republic  at  Can- 
ton, after  first  assuring  themselves  that  it  would  not  be  held 
up  in  Hongkong  for  reasons  of  neutrality.  There  had  been 
no  funds  left  by  the  departing  Imperialist  officials,  and  there 
was  now  nothing  left  of  this  contribution.  A  capable  official 
who  had  been  Judge-Advocate  of  the  Army  under  the  late 
Viceroy  Chan  Kwing-ming,  then  took  hold. 

Among  the  various  military  organisations  that  sprung 
up  at  the  time  of  the  revolt  at  Canton  was  a  company  of 
bomb-throwers  called  the  "Bomb  Pioneers."  Their  uniform 
was  a  light  blue  foreign  knitted  underwear  that  fitted  them 
like  their  own  skins.  They  wore  brown  knitted  socks  sup- 
ported by  American  garters.  Over  the  underwear  they  wore 
shoulder-braces  from  which  were  stretched  across  the  breast 
white  bands  bearing  the  name  of  their  organisation.  Their 
leaders  wore  blouses  and  caps,  and  carried  swords.  Their 
standards  were  white  and  bore  the  Chinese  characters  in  red 
and  black,  giving  the  name  of  their  organisation.  In  parades 
they  sometimes  carried  arms  full  of  bombs  and  were  in  danger 
of  blowing  whole  streets  to  atoms.  In  public  meetings  on 

246 


CANTON,  THE    GIPSY    QUEEN 

two  occasions  there  were  accidents  in  which  numbers  of 
people  were  killed  and  wounded. 

The  late  Judge-Advocate  had  one  of  these  fearsome  "pion- 
eers" at  his  doorway.  This  "pioneer"  looked  exceedingly  mild 
to  me.  He  had  laid  aside  his  insignia,  and  having  added 
Chinese  sandals  and  a  foreign  "Fedora"  hat  to  his  underwear 
and  braces,  had  folded  his  arms  and  was  placidly  smoking  a 
cigarette.  The  burnt  yamen  had  been  partly  restored  to  form 
the  "White  House"  of  the  Canton  Republic,  the  white  effect 
being  produced  by  newly  whitewashed  walls  and  white  flags, 
the  emblem  of  the  Revolution.  We  next  pass  the  place  where 
the  Manchu  Tartar  General  Feng  Shan  was  killed.  Three 
or  four  shops  are  in  ruins  from  the  explosion  and  fire  that 
followed,  leaving  a  tell-tale  gap  in  the  street. 

There  are  new-idea  barber-shops  inscribed  "Universal," 
entirely  foreign  in  arrangement,  where  Western  hair-dressing 
is  practised.  From  a  little  platform  in  a  recess  a  lecturer  is 
addressing  twenty  or  thirty  men.  It  is  a  thumb-box  picture 
of  the  Republic.  The  lecturer,  half  bent,  shakes  his  hand 
over  the  heads  of  the  group  as  he  drives  his  points  home. 

"They  are  explaining  the  principles  of  the  Republic,"  said 
Mr.  Burkwall.  "There  is  a  lecture  system  in  vogue  here 
which  employs  men  qualified  by  foreign  education,  travel,  and 
observation  to  lecture  to  all  the  people.  The  people  seem  to 
be  reading  everything  they  can  get.  Any  kind  of  book  can 
now  be  sold  in  Canton,  anything  that  has  covers — one  might 
say,  anything  that  has  paper  that  is  printed  on,  so  eager  are 
the  people  for  information." 

Already  the  spell-binder  has  reached  China,  and  in  the 
future  elective  system  these  will  be  the  political  orators  and 
politicians. 

At  the  "Temple  of  Horrors,"  a  famous  place  in  Canton 
representing  the  sufferings  in  Gehenna,  pointed  out  to  tour- 
ists, a  great  holiday  crowd  is  being  entertained  at  the  food- 
stalls  by  fortune-tellers,  money-changers,  medicine-sellers,  and 
others.  All  the  "Horrors"  in  clay,  paper,  mortar,  and  paint 
are  destroyed,  the  work  of  the  mob,  and  instead  of  the  usual 
deities,  the  sculptured  representations  of  the  Cycle  and  other 

247 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

things,  the  shrine  of  the  God  of  War  is  substituted,  and 
incense  tapers  and  oil  lamps  are  burning  before  it.  In  front 
of  a  wing  of  the  main  temple  there  is  a  "shooting  gallery." 
Men  take  turns  shooting  Manchus, — the  Manchus  being  rep- 
resented by  a  picture  on  wood  of  a  seated  mandarin  in  full 
official  dress.  The  weapon  used  is  a  vacuum  gun  that  shoots 
a  miniature  lance  with  great  inaccuracy  a  distance  of  six  or 
eight  feet.  The  man  behind  the  gun  when  I  was  looking  on 
punctured  the  Manchu  image  with  such  success  as  to  show 
unmistakable  signs  according  to  his  own  reckoning  of  having 
gotten  his  money's  worth.  This  was  a  favourite  pastime  in 
the  republican  provinces  during  the  Rebellion. 

On  our  way  back  to  Shameen  we  are  passed  by  armed 
escorts,  of  which  I  had  heard  a  great  deal,  flourishing  weapons 
as  they  brush  people  aside.  They  accompany  somebody  in  a 
chair  and  disappear  almost  as  we  turn  to  look  at  them,  and 
are  swallowed  up  in  the  human  mazes  we  are  leaving,  a  strik- 
ing illustration  of  the  whole  drama  acted  in  the  Republic  of 
Canton — the  disappearance  of  the  dignitary  and  the  indi- 
vidual. 

I  was  impressed  at  Canton  with  the  fact  that  there  was 
no  single  name  upon  which  to  pin  history  or  prophecy.  Can- 
ton was  anonymous.  Peking,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai ;  Wuchang,  Li 
Yuan-hung ;  Shanghai,  Wu  Ting- fang ; ;  Nanking,  Sun  Yat- 
sen;  Canton,  no  one.  She  is  the  gipsy  who  has  no  master. 
Her  Tartar  generals  are  dead,  her  viceroys  and  military  gov- 
ernors have  fled  to  foreign  soil.  Hongkong  boasts  four  ex- 
rulers  of  provinces.  There  is  not  a  vacant  tenement  in  the 
Portuguese  colony  of  Macao,  which  for  years  has  been  almost 
abandoned,  and  Canton  is  again  the  Canton  of  "factories" 
and  the  "Hoppo."  There  is  nothing  of  the  Republic  about  it 
except  that  it  is  in  the  hands  of  the  many,  and  a  Provincial 
Assembly  is  meeting  in  a  foreign-style  building,  adopting 
measures  whose  validity  is  in  the  keeping  of  the  future. 

Had  I  walked  these  streets  in  1840  under  the  muzzle  of 
the  British  guns,  as  now,  I  would  have  seen  what  I  see  now. 
Its  water  traffic,  floating  population  and  floating  wealth,  in- 
dustrial and  mercantile  activity,  and  geographical  situation 

248 


CANTON,  THE    GIPSY    QUEEN 

still  make  it  the  lodestone  of  foreign  commerce.  It  is  still  a 
city  of  almost  inhuman  hovels,  and  unearthly  streets  and  high- 
ways, and  of  gruesome  shambles,  human  filth,  avid  vanity, 
immeasurable  disdain,  and  exquisite  bigotry.  At  the  com- 
mencement of  a  great  revolution  of  which  I  was  witnessing 
only  the  infant  efforts  it  is  still  to  the  West  an  unwon  battle- 
field. It  has  proved  itself  worthy  of  the  sharpest  wit  of  the 
foreign  trader,  the  best  steel  of  the  Christian  missionary,  the 
Envoy's  finest  invectives.  Although  raked  by  foreign  lead 
and  ball,  cowed  by  foreign  blades  and  muzzles,  its  pride  is 
still  invincible.  Canton,  the  mother  of  the  unchanging  Chin- 
ese peasantry  of  America  and  other  Pacific  lands,  remains 
the  capital  of  the  dominant  spirit  in  the  Chinese.  And  it  is 
under  foreign  guns. 

The  British  are  being  laughed  at  here  in  Canton  and 
at  Hongkong  by  outsiders.  The  question  is :  Are  they 
right  or  are  they  wrong  in  their  past-century  attitude  to  Can- 
ton? The  long  contempt  of  the  people  of  Canton  for  merely 
presumptuous  authority  such  as  their  officials  appointed  from 
Peking  have  often  admitted,  and  their  ignoring  of  law  other 
than  themselves,  are  shown  in  the  vicissitudes  as  well  as  con- 
fessions of  these  officials,  including  viceroys  whose  yamens 
have  been  periodically  assaulted,  whose  lives  have  been  period- 
ically attempted.  The  turbulent  pride  and  wrath  of  the  Can- 
tonese have  always  fretted  against  the  yamen  walls.  In  this 
and  in  the  risings  against  the  rule  claimed  over  them  and 
against  the  temples,  the  spirit  of  the  law  that  is  themselves 
appears.  They  seem  to  say,  "The  viceroys,  the  rule,  the  tem- 
ples— they  are  our  own ;  we  make  them  and  we  destroy  them." 

In  all  China  this  feeling  has  not  existed  as  at  Canton.  It 
may  exist  in  all  branches  and  divisions  of  the  race,  and  in  that 
possibility  no  doubt  lies  the  mystery  of  its  political  future. 
In  China  Canton  is  the  throne  of  the  law  that  is  the  people 
themselves.  So  secure  is  the  seat  of  the  people's  rule  in  China 
that  usually  foreigners  acquainted  with  the  Chinese  often  feel 
as  confident  of  order  and  rule  when  the  Chinese  are  without  a 
viceroy  or  governor  as  when  with  one. 

In  Canton,  when  the  people  rise  up  en  masse,  or  when 

249 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

the  rulers  are  at  variance  with  the  people,  there  is  a  neutral 
power  that  equalises  all  forces.  It  is  the  people  harnessed, 
and  is  known  as  the  "Seventy-two  Guilds  and  Nine  Charitable 
Institutions."  This  is  the  force  that  now  makes  Canton  lead- 
erless  and  anonymous.  It  is  now  in  fact  the  Republic  so  far 
as  Canton  is  concerned. 

But  Canton  is  a  menace  to  the  reform  movement.  It  has 
allowed  its  anonymous  piratical  hosts  to  unite  in  a  revolution- 
ary army  that  is  usurping  the  Government  and  is  only  held  in 
control  of  the  "Seventy-two  Guilds  and  Nine  Charitable  In- 
stitutions" by  leash  of  money.  It  is  this  situation  over  which 
the  British  hold  their  guns,  the  mob  of  1830  and  1840  armed 
and  enthroned.  Here  is  the  first  struggle  of  the  whole  Chi- 
nese Republic  with  lawlessness  and  anarchy.  This  situation  is 
keeping  the  telegraphs  between  London,  Hongkong,  Canton, 
Nanking,  and  Peking  busy.  Outsiders  laugh,  but  those  having 
in  their  hands  the  fate  of  this  people  and  of  the  Revolution 
and  Republic  are  troubled.  They  are  troubled  over  Canton, 
the  gipsy  queen  and  the  mother  of  revolution. 


CHAPTER  XXII 
ALONG  THE   COAST   WITH   A   REBEL  GENERAL 

CANTON  is  the  Capital  of,  and  dominates,  both  the  prov- 
ince of  Kuangtung  in  which  it  is  situated  and  the  prov- 
ince of  Kuangsi  joining  it  on  the  west.  The  eight 
principal  piratical  leaders  control  the  whole  delta  of  the  West 
and  Pearl  rivers,  and  a  region  extending  fifty  miles  inland 
back  of  Canton.  They  are  administering  the  region  with  con- 
siderable success.  "Lamp-Chimney"  Lay  is  running  Honam 
Island  and  actually  cutting  off  some  heads  in  suppressing 
piracy.  In  Canton  perhaps  70  per  cent  of  the  republican  lead- 
ers and  office-holders  in  the  new  organisation  are  Christian- 
educated,  and  except  for  the  piratical  army  this  element  is  on 
top  here  and  therefore  throughout  the  provinces. 

The  opposite  element  is  on  top  in  the  province  of  Kuangsi, 
where  the  type  of  leader  that  has  sprung  up  is  represented 
to  be  that  of  a  Triad  chief,  or  arch  blackmailer  and  robber. 
What  the  class  that  governs  there  is  like  is  shown  in  one  leader 
who  enticed  a  community  of  lepers  into  his  power  and  under 
pretence  of  feeding,  cut  off  their  heads  to  be  rid  of  them.  In 
some  places  this  controlling  class  is  opposed  by  the  established 
militia,  and  in  others  by  Revolutionist  bands,  each  domineer- 
ing its  selected  region,  holding  towns  and  cities,  possessing 
itself  of  tax  stations  and  levying  on  all  traffic. 

On  the  east  of  Canton  the  piratical  party  is  trying  to  ex- 
tend its  power  by  getting  control  of  the  forts  toward  the  sea. 
If  it  attains  this,  it  will  further  intimidate  the  Republic  in 
Kuangtung  and  will  be  able  to  menace  the  Provisional 
Government  at  Nanking. 

Before  leaving  Canton  I  was  rowed  up  the  Pearl  River 
by  a  boat-woman  with  a  baby  on  her  back,  against  the  tide, 
and  to  the  sound  of  vespers  on  the  salt  junks — vespers  of  tom- 
toms beat  to  the  water  spirits.  In  passing  this  fleet  lying  at 

251 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

anchor  we  were  crossed  by  other  boats  rowed  by  mischievous 
boat-girls.  We  passed  where  the  junks  were  thickest,  under 
gay  boat-sterns,  through  villages  of  boats  laughing  in  storms 
of  gay,  fluttering  streamers  and  floating  bits  of  red  tissue 
paper.  Canton  was  ready  for  its  own  New  Year's  merry- 
making. 

The  next  day  I  made  my  exit  from  Canton  amid  the  New 
Year's  explosions  of  untold  thousands  of  fireworks,  for  me, 
an  American,  turning  Canton  into  a  city  of  a  hundred  Fourths 
of  July.  It  is  a  gay  and  airy  rebuke  to  the  pall  of  tragedy 
which  the  British  lay  upon  Shameen,  and  in  which  the  serious 
and  conservative  British  Consul,  Mr.  Jamieson,  withstands  the 
gentle  banterings  of  his  international  colleagues.  They  are 
prepared  to  see  him  lose  face  when  the  British  bulldog  is 
obliged  to  let  go  at  Shameen  and  the  soldiers  and  guns  move 
out  to  the  sound  of  the  Cantonese  republican  titter.  But  the 
game  is  not  yet  finished.  "The  Seventy-two  Guilds  and  Nine 
Charitable  Institutions"  and  the  "pirates"  are  just  beginning 
to  try  conclusions  with  each  other.  The  old  Consul  is  waiting 
to  see  the  last  cards.  From  every  dooryard  on  the  river  front, 
and  every  deck  above^  the  water,  firecrackers  are  swelling, 
bursting,  spitting,  as  though  each  and  every  deck  and  door 
has  had  an  importation  of  Kilkenny  cats.  The  celebration 
seems  great  enough  to  make  it  appropriate  both  for  the  New 
Year  and  the  inauguration  of  the  whole  Republic  of  China. 

We  put  to  sea — the  republican  sea.  The  baby  "Flowery 
Republic"  has  not  taken  possession  of  its  sea;  not  even  a  junk 
is  visible.  As  I  looked  shoreward  I  thought  to  myself :  "I  am 
sailing  abreast  a  land  having  no  less  than  300,000,000  people — 
300,000,000  newborn  as  republicans."  Canton  had  but  1,250,- 
ooo  of  them.  En  route  North  I  was  passing  in  review  scores 
of  millions  more  aspiring  to  a  heritage  such  as  has  been  mine 
from  birth. 

Imagination  tells  me  these  millions  are  there  in  the  sun- 
shine and  the  mist,  in  the  night  and  in  the  day.  But  not  all 
of  them.  Both  imagination  and  actuality  show  me  that  one 
of  the  300,000,000  or  more  is  aboard  ship — a  slight,  near- 
sighted Chinese,  like  a  Cantonese,  in  the  guise  of  foreign 

252 


ALONG  THE  COAST  WITH  A  REBEL  GENERAL 

clothes,  with  an  English  travelling-cap  and  spectacles.  I  must 
say  something  of  him,  for  he  is  the  link  in  the  story  of  the 
"gipsy  queen."  He  is  a  General  under  the  Republican  Pro- 
visional Government  at  Nanking  and  has  just  come  from  a 
serio-comic  adventure  with  the  piratical  chiefs  of  the  region 
between  Hongkong  and  Canton.  He  is  carrying  to  Nanking 
recommendations  for  putting  down  the  pirates  that  are  strang- 
ling the  Canton  Republic.  He  has  been  a  student  at  the  Mili- 
tary Institute  of  Virginia,  the  West  Point  of  the  South  where 
Stonewall  Jackson  was  trained,  and  an  alumnus  of  the  real 
West  Point.  Thus  the  spirit  of  Commodore  Kearny  and  of 
the  first  American  India  squadron  that  joined  the  Britons  to 
fight  the  Canton  pirates,  is  come  back  from  Kearny's  own 
land  to  fight  for  him  and  the  British  tars  whose  deeds  are 
written  on  the  same  monument  in  Happy  Valley,  Hongkong. 
Favoured  by  the  opportunities  offered  trained  soldiers  under 
the  Chinese  Republic,  he  has  risen  to  be  a  general  in  Kuang- 
tung,  and  is  in  command  of  the  Tiger  Hill  fort  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Kowloon — an  important  strategical  position.  He  has 
been  approached  by  the  pirates  and  asked  to  turn  over  his 
fort  and  command  to  them,  and  the  relations  between  the 
regular  military  and  the  piratical  forces  have  reached  a  point 
of  rupture. 

General  Ping,  as  I  will  call  him,  said  that  Wang  Ho-tsun 
— General  Wang — was  the  principal  pirate  leader.  It  was  he 
who  led  3,000  men  to  Canton  from  Waichou,  at  the  time  of 
revolt. 

"But  the  worst  of  all  the  robber  chiefs,"  said  he,  "is  Yang 
Man-fu,  with  whom  Wang  is  associated.  The  former  came 
to  me  and  demanded  to  have  command  of  the  Tiger  Hill  fort. 
I  was  not  ready  to  fight  him,  so  I  parleyed,  telling  him  that 
I  could  not  turn  over  the  command  without  orders  from  my 
superiors,  and  that  I  would  have  to  consult  with  them.  He 
contented  himself  with  taking  four  of  my  mountain-guns,  to- 
gether with  about  100  shrapnel  shells,  an  act  that  I  could  not 
prevent.  My  men  are  new-style  troops  and  can  fight  three 
times  "their  numbers  of  robbers.  But  to  fight  now  would  mean 
the  destruction  of  the  fort. 

253 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

"The  pirates  or  robber  troops  number  altogether  50,000," 
said  he.  "Their  leaders  in  some  cases  draw  pay  from  the 
province  for  full  battalions  of  600  when  they  have  actually 
only  about  100  men  in  each  battalion.  In  this  way  one  leader 
will  squeeze  $3,000  (gold  value)  per  month.  They  will  have 
to  be  punished  and  their  men  disarmed.  This  can  be  done  if 
the  Provisional  Government  will  accept  my  plans.  General 
Ling  in  charge  of  the  new-style  troops  in  Canton,  3,000  or 
4,000,  and  myself,  could  assemble  a  round  10,000  reliable 
troops.  My  plan  is  this:  the  Tu  Tu,  or  Governor-General, 
Chen,  at  Canton,  is  afraid  to  take  hold  of  the  situation,  and 
it  would  be  best  to  supersede  him.  I  am  going  to  recommend 
that  a  new  man  be  appointed  at  Canton,  which  will  make  it 
necessary  for  the  piratical  leaders  to  call  on  him  to  pay  their 
respects.  When  they  come  to  make  their  calls  they  can  be 
arrested  and  punished  for  extortion,  coercion  of  the  people 
and  officials,  and  other  crimes,  by  our  troops.  Our  troops 
will  be  strong  enough  then  to  execute  the  worst  leaders  and 
disarm  their  men." 

"That  is  an  old  game  in  China,"  said  I,  "the  superseding 
of  one  official  by  another  in  order  to  force  enemies  to  come 
forward  and  show  their  loyalty,  and  after  thus  inveigling 
them  into  the  trap,  to  seize,  condemn,  and  kill  them.  These 
pirate  chiefs  must  be  aware  of  your  intentions,  as  they  have 
played  at  that  game  before,  and  would  not  overlook  so  simple 
a  trick." 

"That's  true ;  they  are  suspicious  of  me  and  are  watching 
me,  but  what  can  they  do?" 

The  plan  was  invulnerable.  As  a  trick  in  the  official  card- 
box  of  Eastern  Asia  its  antiquity  has  proved  it  so.  A  Chinese 
traitor  may  decline  to  pay  his  respects  to  his  newly  appointed 
superior,  but  not  without  confessing  his  disloyalty.  As  the 
years  go  on  there  will  be  much  discussion  as  to  what  the 
Chinese  Republic  is.  It  seemed  to  be  prophetic  that  in  Can- 
ton New  China  started  with  the  same  old  trick,  and  the  Re- 
public worked  out  its  problem  on  the  same  old  lines  as  in  the 
piratical  past. 

In  my  observation  in  China  few  large  national  or  inter- 

254 


ALONG  THE  COAST  WITH  A  REBEL  GENERAL 

national  questions  come  up  that  are  not  in  some  way  con- 
nected with  or  influenced  by  the  old  and  chronic  situation 
respecting  the  Cantonese  populace — China's  first  republicans. 
In  this  situation,  involving  foreigners  and  Chinese  alike,  there 
is  a  picture  of  what  is  to  be  the  future  of  the  Republic.  I  had 
my  first  impression  of  this  region  of  political  and  social  ro- 
mance from  books.  The  magic  names  of  Boca  Tigris,  Wham- 
poa,  the  Bogue,  and  Barrier,  forts,  and  Shameen,  were  now 
real. 

The  battle-ground  of  the  independent  Chinese  spirit  delin- 
eated in  these  names  had  in  time  brought  forth  the  now  typi- 
cal far-Eastern  political  situation,  involving  races  and  nations 
in  all  the  national  jealousies  and  conflicts  that  are  the  princi- 
pal features  of  the  life  of  Eastern  Asia. 

Having  seen  and  heard  at  Canton  the  foreign  side  of  this 
crisis  in  the  Canton  Republic  and  the  situation  of  the  British 
Consul  and  his  critics,  so  intimately  a  part  of  the  Republic 
of  all  China,  and  having  heard  direct  the  inside  story  of  the 
Chinese,  I  had  now  a  personal  interest  in  the  way  it  worked 
itself  out.  General  Ping  presented  his  recommendations  to 
President  Sun  Yat-sen  at  Nanking.  The  Provisional  Govern- 
ment at  Nanking  was  unwilling  at  the  moment  to  attempt  co- 
ercion of  the  piratical  forces,  which  forces  claimed  to  be  the 
representatives  of  the  Republic.  General  Ping's  plan  was 
disapproved  by  President  Sun  Yat-sen,  and  he  returned  to 
Kuangtung  to  witness  worse  happenings. 

The  piratical  leaders  were  aware  of  conspiracies  to  dis- 
arm them,  and  they  organised  a  revolt.  Governor-General 
Chen  Chun-ming  called  them  together  and  proposed  a  gradual 
reduction  of  their  forces.  He  told  them  that  the  Republic 
was  established,  the  people  had  returned  to  civil  pursuits,  and 
that  the  next  thing  was  the  disbanding  of  the  troops.  He 
asked  the  commanders  one  by  one  to  state  how  many  they 
could  disband.  Several  agreed  to  reduce  their  forces,  300  and 
500,  and  so  on,  as  the  case  might  be,  in  a  certain  proportion 
to  the  total  unit  each  commanded.  In  authority  outside  the 
East  Gate  of  Canton  was  the  pirate  chief,  General  Wang, 
called  by  General  Ping  the  worst  of  the  lot.  When 

255 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

asked  how  many  men  he  could  disband,  he  replied:  "Five 
hundred." 

"But  you  have  five  thousand,  can  you  not  disband  more 
than  five  hundred?"  he  was  asked. 

What  General  Ping  expected  took  place.  The  proposal 
was  repulsed  by  General  Wang,  who  retorted,  "Yes,  I'll  dis- 
band all  of  them,"  and  left  the  Governor-General's  yamen  in  a 
rage,  before  he  could  be  intercepted. 

The  fat  is  in  the  fire. 

March  8,  1912,  leading  republicans  are  discouraged  by  the 
difficulties  confronting  the  regime  at  the  Governor-General's 
yamen  and  its  inabilities  to  cope  with  the  situation.  March 

9,  when  General  Wang  walks  out  of  the  Governor-General's 
yamen,  all  the  shops  in  Canton  are  reported  closed.     March 

10,  the  Governor-General  sends  his  own  soldiers  to  replace  the 
troops  to  be  disbanded.     Civilians  are  fleeing  from  the  City. 
When  Governor-General  Chen's  men,  sent  to  replace  the  pirate 
soldiers  which  it  was  expected  General  Wang  might  disband, 
reach  the  Canton  East  Gate,  they  are  not  allowed  to  pass. 
They  are  told  that  "here  General  Wang  is  in  command,"  that 
"other  troops  will  not  be  allowed  here,"  and  that  "any  who 
attempt  to  come  will  be  killed." 

Eight  thousand  piratical  troops  and  mutineers  are  in  re- 
volt, and  the  entire  piratical  army  of  20,000  is  unreliable. 
Four  days  of  disorders  and  guerrilla-fighting  ensue,  throwing 
the  region  into  a  theatre  of  war  and  bringing  about  martial 
law.  Canton  Republic  is  now  having  its  real  baptism  of  blood, 
and  seems  to  deserve  just  as  good  blood  and  as  much  of  it  as 
the  Viceroyalty  has  had  in  ages  past.  The  foreign  gunboats, 
especially  the  British  and  French,  "clear  for  action," — a  Brit- 
ish gunboat  taking  position  nearest  the  foreign  electric-light 
plant  after  a  stray  bullet  has  struck  the  British  camp  on  Sha- 
meen.  Barricades  are  erected  between  the  regular  or  loyalist 
troops  and  the  piratical  army.  The  latter  comes  under  the 
domination  of  the  leading  pirate  chief  Luk  Lam-ching,  who  is 
reinforcing.  The  pirates  have  pushed  disorder  to  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  Admiralty,  and  March  12  Luk  Lam-ching's 
men  capture  the  Bogue  forts  surrendered  to  them  by  other 

256 


mutineers.  Then  arming  themselves  from  the  Arsenal,  they 
take  the  Admiralty  building. 

March  10,  when  Governor-General  Chen  Chun-ming's  men 
march  out  the  East  Gate,  three  of  them  are  killed.  March  13, 
after  three  days'  attack  by  the  Governor-General's  troops 
along  the  line  of  barricades,  there  are  hundreds  of  casualties. 

In  the  excitement  the  foreign  partisans  in  the  defence  con- 
troversy at  Shameen  and  in  the  districts  sheltering  foreigners 
have  forgotten  their  differences.  March  12,  sixty-three  native 
girls  from  the  Wesleyan  Mission  escape  by  British  gunboat  to 
the  steamer  Fatshan  and  go  to  Hongkong.  The  British  Con- 
sul reports  to  Hongkong  the  capture  of  the  Bogue  forts  and 
takes  measures  to  safeguard  all  British  subjects.  Missionaries 
are  ordered  to  quit  Cant6n.  The  steamers  Honam  and  Fat- 
shan carry  3,000  passengers  of  all  nationalities  to  Hongkong, 
and  several  steamships  are  prepared  to  leave  on  instant  notice. 
All  the  foreign  gunboats  are  prepared  for  action,  their  men 
armed  in  a  way  strikingly  like  that  of  the  palmy  days  of  uni- 
versal piracy  a  century  before,  when  hand-to-hand  fighting 
was  the  practice. 

At  evening  the  British  Consul  recommended  that  British 
vessels  put  out  all  lights  on  recommencement  of  firing  from 
the  Bogue  forts. 

March  13  there  are  400  Indian  infantry  and  Yorkshire 
Tommies  and  100  French  sailors  encamped  on  Shameen,  with 
perhaps  1,000  bluejackets  afloat  on  twelve  international  gun- 
boats. There  is  one  additional  German  gunboat  coming  up 
from  Hongkong.  The  British  gunboat  Kinsha  damaged  by 
shot  shifts  her  anchorage,  and  the  Moorhen  has  her  awning 
and  a  spar  bullet-torn  at  her  post  commanding  the  electric-light 
station.  Several  missionaries  narrowly  escape  bullets.  March 
14  bullets  reach  Shameen.  Mission  houses  in  outlying  regions 
are  hit,  and  two  American  ladies  make  an  unsuccessful  at- 
tempt to  leave  Canton  in  a  motor-boat.  A  launch  from  the 
U.  S.  gunboat  Wilmington  tries  to  rescue  them,  but  is  unable 
to  proceed  on  account  of  a  hail  of  bullets.  Three  American 
gentlemen,  including  the  Vice-Consul,  Mr.  Hamilton  Butler, 
join  the  two  ladies,  and  all  reach  safety. 

257 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

Five  pirate  leaders  are  reported  combined  to  resist  dis- 
armament, and  their  forces  are  estimated  at  28,000.  Luk  Lam- 
ching  directly  controls  10,000  and  commands  the  situation 
by  holding  the  east  end  of  the  City,  the  Bogue  forts,  and  also 
Honam  Island,  staunchly  defended  by  "Lamp-Chimney"  Lay. 
With  these  forces  and  advantages  Luk  challenges  the  Gover- 
nor-General to  fight  him  in  the  open.  The  Governor-General, 
with  perhaps  20,000  foreign-drilled  Cantonese  troops  under 
General  Ling  and  aided  by  a  fleet  of  gunboats,  drives  Luk's 
lines  back  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Canton-Kowloon  railway  sta- 
tion, when  General  Wang  for  mysterious  reasons  flees  to 
Hongkong,  but  nothing  decisive  is  gained  by  the  Governor- 
General. 

March  15  is  devoted  to  the  execution  of  200  of  the  pirati- 
cal element  by  the  Governor-General's  troops,  near  Shameen. 
March  16,  when  the  two  parties  are  facing  each  other,  the 
Governor-General  insists  upon  resigning.  Luk  Lam-ching  on 
his  side  addresses  the  merchants  and  says  that  if  the  "Peo- 
ple's Army"  fails  to  obtain  a  victory  over  the  Government  in 
power  in  Canton  he  will  shell  Shameen  and  precipitate  foreign 
intervention.  This  is  the  true  character  and  disposition  of 
the  Canton  and  Kuangtung  Revolutionists.  March  17  and 
18  a  few  shots  are  fired,  and  March  19  the  Governor-General's 
forces  attack  Luk  Lam-ching,  who  replies  vigorously.  They 
take  all  the  forts  at  three  points  on  the  river — Yuhu,  Wham- 
poa,  and  Fumun — after  a  long  cannonade,  principally  by  the 
Chinese  gunboats.  The  Governor-General's  troops  under  Gen- 
eral Ling  are  now  in  control  of  Canton. 

March  26  the  British  withdraw  their  reinforcements,  in- 
cluding the  artillery,  leaving  only  the  original  100  Baluchistan 
infantrymen  on  Shameen.  The  Republic  at  Canton  has  proved 
itself  only  the  Empire. 

The  staid  British  Consul  was  right. 

Peace  was  restored  for  the  time  being  by  paying  off  the 
soldiers  of  General  Wang  who  had  precipitated  the  outbreak 
and  giving  them  ten  dollars  (gold  value)  each  for  their  rifles. 
The  sequel  to  General  Ping's  recommendations  came  a  month 
later,  April  25,  1912,  when  Sun  Yat-sen  arrived  in  Canton 

258 


ALONG  THE  COAST  WITH  A  REBEL  GENERAL 

with  the  object  of  reconciling  its  warring  elements.  Governor- 
General  Chen  Chun-ming  fled  secretly  by  night  to  Hongkong, 
leaving  letters  of  resignation  addressed  to  the  heads  of  the 
army  and  navy,  and  to  the  President  of  the  Provincial  Assem- 
bly. He  pointed  out  that  he  had  not  sought  the  office  of 
Governor-General  and  felt  himself  unequal  to  the  task.  He 
could  not  undertake  to  return,  unless  in  a  smaller  capacity  in 
the  army.  He  saw  an  opportunity  to  shift  the  office  back  upon 
the  shoulders  of  his  predecessor  Hu  Han-wen,  now  Sun  Yat- 
sen's  secretary,  and  escape  the  network  of  Canton  plot  and 
conspiracy. 

Hu  Han-wen  was  appointed  Governor-General  by  the  City 
fathers,  about  160  of  them,  representing  the  "Seventy-two 
Guilds  and  Nine  Charitable  Institutions,"  and  Chen  Chun- 
ming  was  appointed  chief  of  the  military  forces.  This  was 
the  belated  opportunity  for  executing  the  plan  of  General  Ping, 
and  at  least  two  leaders  of  the  revolt  were  seized  and  be- 
headed. 

Following  his  reception  in  Canton  the  Cantonese  gave  Sun 
Yat-sen  a  feast  at  which  any  toast  to  President  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai  was  omitted.  Sun  Yat-sen  pointed  out  to  the  proud 
Southerners  that  if  the  disorders  were  not  arranged  in  Kuang- 
tung  the  Northerners  would  assume  the  aggressive  against 
them  and  would  march  upon  Canton. 

All  this  illustrates  my  point  that  hardly  any  important 
questions  are  raised  in  China  that  are  not  affected  by  Canton. 
Canton,  by  refusing  to  recognise  President  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
and  defying  the  authorities  of  Nanking,  was  interfering  with 
the  amalgamation  of  the  North  and  South.  By  its  local  war- 
fare it  threatened  to  precipitate  foreign  intervention  at  the 
very  start-off  of  the  United  Republic.  But  most  important  of 
all  it  emphasised  this  fact,  namely,  that  the  obstacle  to  change 
and  reform  in  China  is  a  Chinese  one.  The  delusion  that  the 
obstacle  was  Manchu  is  already  forgotten. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
WHEN   NANKING   FELL 

HAD  I  been  a  Revolutionist  marching  on  Nanking  I  would 
have  taken  the  same  route  that  I  now  took  as  a  war 
correspondent.  It  was  the  highway  of  the  Shanghai 
Revolutionists.  After  the  revolt  November  3,  1911,  and  the 
turning  over  of  the  troops  to  the  Revolutionists  November  4, 
those  troops  stationed  at  the  Wusung  forts  and  other  places 
along  the  River  Huangpu  formulated  an  expedition  against 
Nanking.  They  proceeded  by  the  Yangtse  River,  the  Shang- 
hai-Nanking Railway,  and  the  Grand  Canal  to  Chingkiang. 
They  had  three  lines  of  communication  and  supply,  and  gath- 
ered up  reinforcements  at  Suchow  and  elsewhere  as  they  pro- 
ceeded. I  took  the  middle  line  in  now  tracing  the  scene  of 
the  events  leading  to  the  establishment  of  the  Republican 
Capital  at  Nanking. 

From  Chingkiang,  the  Revolutionist  base  at  the  meeting- 
place  of  the  Yangtse  River  and  the  Grand  Canal  with  the 
Shanghai-Nanking  Railway,  there  are  straggling  lines  of  hills 
that  lead  thirty-five  miles  to  Purple  Hill,  newly  made  famous 
by  the  establishment  of  the  "Flowery  Republic." 

The  stage  is  being  set  for  scenes  that  make  Nanking  the 
wonder  of  the  world — scenes  which  conclude  the  capture  of 
the  greatest  of  the  world's  empires  by  the  republican  idea. 
It  is  the  greatest  city  of  the  Yangtse,  and  spectacular  events 
have  for  weeks  been  dinning  in  the  ears  of  the  world  its 
strategical  and  political  importance.  It  is  the  real  revolu- 
tionary crucible.  This  was  the  last  viceregal  post  of  Tuan 
Fang,  whose  head  at  the  time  to  which  I  now  refer  is  still  on 
his  shoulders,  but  cut  from  his  shoulders  will  soon  be  on  its 
way  to  Wuchang,  for  presentation  to  President  General  Li 
Yuan-hung.  The  famous  ex-Minister  of  War,  Tieh  Liang,  is 

260 


WHEN    NANKING    FELL 

Tartar  General  here.  The  refugee  Viceroy  of  Wuchang,  Jui 
Cheng,  who  slipped  in  the  night  from  the  grasp  of  the  Wu- 
chang Revolutionists,  has  stopped  here  for  a  few  hours  in  his 
flight.  Tsen  Chun-hsuan,  appointed  to  co-operate  with  Tuan 
Fang  in  Szechuan,  also  stopped  here  in  his  flight  and  made 
up  his  mind  that  he  was  a  Revolutionist.  Admiral  Sah  Chen- 
ping,  after  leaving  Hankow  with  his  mutinous  fleet,  with- 
drawing down  stream,  has  been  reported  by  the  forts  here,  and 
on  the  eve  of  the  Revolutionists'  capture  of  Nanking  his  late 
squadron  has  been  threatened  in  its  passage  by  the  loyalist 
troops. 

Foreign  warships  are  gathering.  Having  heard  that  the 
Revolutionist  movement  from  the  Huangpu  is  under  way, 
the  British  Vice-Admiral  Winsloe  aboard  the  Alacrity  and 
the  German  Vice-Admiral  von  Krosig  on  his  ship  Leipsig  leave 
Hankow  during  one  of  the  heaviest  bombardments  there,  for 
Nanking.  November  4,  Rear-Admiral  Murdock,  American, 
has  landed  200  marines  at  Shanghai  and  is  soon  at  Nanking 
aboard  the  flagship  Rainbow.  The  Japanese  and  other  foreign 
naval  forces  are  present. 

Following  the  Wusung,  Shanghai,  and  Chingkiang  troops 
come  the  foreign  correspondents  from  Shanghai,  with  their 
field  dress,  pencils  and  cameras.  They  seek  horses  and  other 
means  of  getting  to  the  "front,"  and  are  forming  communica- 
tions with  the  telegraphs  over  the  immense  distances  around 
the  city  of  Nanking.  These  distances  include  the  foreign  war- 
ships in  the  river,  the  foreign  consulates,  missions  and  vice- 
royal  offices  within  the  walls  of  Nanking,  and  the  hills  outside 
the  City  where  Imperialist  and  Revolutionist  troops  are  tak- 
ing up  their  positions.  A  little  later  on  they  promise  the 
world  a  Waterloo  which  never  comes  off,  but  which  promise 
nevertheless  informs  the  world  that  the  correspondents  are 
present  and  the  carnage  may  begin. 

November  6  the  Throne  at  Peking  instructs  Viceroy  Chang 
Jen-chun  not  to  oppose  the  revolutionaries,  and  Chang  Chien, 
the  President  of  the  Provincial  Assembly,  consults  General 
Chang  Hsun,  Commander  of  the  Imperialist  troops,  as  to  a 
compromise  in  order  to  avert  battle.  He  fails.  The  Manchu 

261 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

Tartar  General,  Tieh  Liang,  also  refuses  to  accept  the 
Throne's  instructions  to  Viceroy  Chang  Jen-chun,  and  the 
Viceroy  is  in  a  delicate  position.  He  is  in  so  delicate  a  posi- 
tion that  the  war  correspondents  publish  throughout  the  world 
that  he  has  "died  by  his  own  hand,"  an  event  which  does  not 
transpire  but  which  they  never  deny. 

Internal  Nanking  is  revolutionary  and  the  loyalty  of  the 
Imperialist  troops  is  problematical.  November  8  at  8  P.M. 
Revolutionists  estimated  at  100  invade  the  Chinese  city  in 
Nanking  and  attack  Viceroy  Chang  Jen-chun's  yamen,  where 
most  of  them  are  killed  or  wounded,  and  the  rest  disperse. 
November  9  at  6  A.M.  about  200  prisoners  quartered  near  the 
yamen  revolt  and  make  a  second  attack.  They  too  are  sup- 
pressed, losing  a  fourth  of  their  number  killed,  and  their  quar- 
ters are  burned.  As  if  by  concerted  plot  there  is  an  attack  by 
revolutionaries  under  General  Hsu  Shao-cheng  at  Wuling- 
kuan,  outside  the  South  Gate  of  Nanking,  and  an  attempt  is 
made  by  them  to  capture  ammunition  and  enter  the  City.  It  is 
frustrated. 

Nanking  is  now  ready  for  revolution.  The  Provincial 
Assembly  demands  that  the  Viceroy  act  upon  the  Throne's 
edict  and  prevent  the  suppression  of  revolt  and  the  passing 
of  the  City  to  the  Republic.  It  has  been  a  long  time  since 
Nanking  has  witnessed  such  scenes  as  now  occur.  Not  since 
the  T'aiping  Rebellion,  a  half-century  before,  has  this  City 
had  such  excitement.  It  is  the  time  of  gloom,  panic,  and 
flight  at  Peking,  and  Nanking  follows  its  example.  Both 
Chinese  and  Manchus  are  fleeing.  The  City's  gates  are  closed, 
but  the  people  make  their  way  over  the  walls  and  join  those 
from  the  suburbs.  The  City  learns  of  the  revolutionary  attack 
at  Wulingkuan. 

The  foreign  residents  are  leaving  the  City  or  gathering 
at  their  consulates.  November  9  the  German  warship  Tiger 
lands  ten  marines  to  bring  the  German  Consul  and  German 
subjects  out  of  Nanking,  an  example  followed  by  the  other 
Powers,  Great  Britain,  Japan,  and  the  United  States. 

After  the  morning  hours  of  November  9  no  fighting  occurs 
in  or  around  Nanking,  but  early  in  the  day  General  Chang 

262 


u 

e8 

s 


WHEN    NANKING    FELL 

Hsun's  soldiers  dismantle  the  military  wireless  station  and 
warn  the  operators  to  leave  or  be  killed,  and  the  latter  dis- 
perse in  disguise. 

By  November  10  something  approaching  a  state  of  terror 
exists.  The  situation  is  that  the  City  gates  are  closed  upon 
an  internal  revolutionary  storm.  The  Imperialist  troops  have 
suppressed  two  revolts  and  one  attack,  and  their  General, 
Chang  Hsun,  surrounded  by  his  old-style  troops,  has  risen  to 
supremacy  over  the  mild,  scholar-Viceroy  Chang  Jen-chun, 
and  the  half-hearted  Manchu  General  Tieh  Liang,  whose  dis- 
cretion, since  he  has  seen  the  fate  of  Jui  Cheng  and  other 
Manchus,  has  gotten  the  better  of  his  valour.  "If  the  revo- 
lutionaries wish  my  life  they  can  take  it,"  says  the  old  Viceroy. 
"I  cannot  comply  with  their  wish  that  I  hand  over  the  City, 
though  I  am  willing  to  obey  the  Throne's  edict.  I  cannot 
even  send  out  my  few  valuables  and  my  wife  to  Shanghai, 
Chang  Hsun  refuses  a  pass." 

The  Manchu  garrison  of  approximately  10,000,  together 
with  General  Chang  Hsun's  troops,  dominate  the  City's  popu- 
lation, approximating  150,000.  Every  available  Manchu  from 
the  age  of  fifteen  years  to  sixty  years  is  drafted  into  service, 
and  General  Chang  Hsun  commandeers  all  available  supplies 
to  withstand  siege.  By  midday  his  soldiers  are  looting  Gov- 
ernment schools  and  searching  for  and  executing  queueless 
men  from  the  South  Gate  to  Hsiakuan  on  the  Yangtse.  Stu- 
dents who  have  long  doffed  their  queues  are  hiding  in  terror. 
It  is  estimated  that  half  the  population  of  the  City  and  outlying 
suburbs  has  decamped  and  is  making  its  way  into  the  country, 
for  the  most  part  in  a  long  procession  down  the  Shanghai- 
Nanking  Railway,  toward  Chingkiang. 

Within  a  small  area  inside  the  walls  of  Nanking  150  dead 
bodies,  among  which  are  those  of  women  and  children,  are 
counted.  General  Chang  Hsun  has  placed  guards  along  the 
entire  Great  Street  through  Nanking  and  Hsiakuan  to  the 
Yangtse  River,  and  on  Pei-chi-ko — a  solitary  high  hill  near 
the  middle  of  the  vast  walled  enclosure  of  Nanking — is  guard- 
ing Viceroy  Chang  Jen-chun  and  Tartar  General  Tieh  Liang. 
To  this  strategic  place,  surrounded  by  fields  and  affording  a 

263 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

view  of  the  outlying  country,  they  have  retired  for  safety. 
The  hillside  is  dotted  with  Imperialist  patrols. 

November  n  General  Chang  Hsun  is  master  of  Nanking, 
and  Viceroy  Chang  Jen-chun  and  Tartar  General  Tieh  Liang 
are  virtually  prisoners. 

November  12  the  Revolutionists  in  military  council  at 
Suchow  admit  defeat  in  the  attempt  to  capture  Nanking  by 
strategy.  They  testify  to  the  heavy  hand  laid  upon  them  by 
•General  Chang  Hsun  by  offering  $200,000  for  his  head,  or 
$500,000  to  induce  his  officers  not  to  resist  as  commanded  by 
the  Throne  at  Peking. 

November  13  the  American,  British,  and  German  naval 
commanders  pronounce  Nanking  untenable  for  foreigners  and 
withdraw  their  guards  from  their  consulates,  which  are  closed. 
November  14  General  Chang  Hsun  summarises  his  achieve- 
ments. He  has  beheaded  400  men  connected  with  the  Revo- 
lutionist outbreak  of  November  8  and  9,  established  military 
law  and  a  new  government,  making  himself  Military  Director. 
As  to  his  plans,  he  says :  "I  must  be  loyal  to  my  Emperor.  In 
suppressing  the  rebels  I  will  not  only  resist  them  if  they  at- 
tack Nanking,  but  will  lead  my  troops  to  Chingkiang,  Suchow, 
and  Shanghai.  It  is  my  intention  to  win  back  these  places  for 
the  Emperor  and  wipe  out  all  enemies.  I  have  20,000  soldiers 
of  one  mind.  I  have  all  the  power  in  Nanking  in  my  hands." 

This  is  the  rise  of  the  only  star  of  Manchu  hope  in  all 
the  width  and  breadth  of  revolutionary  China.  Chang  Hsun, 
the  fire-eater  and  braggart,  is  the  only  general  of  the  Empire 
who  has  successfully  stood  his  ground  in  the  presence  of 
revolt.  He  appears  for  the  time  being  like  a  Gibraltar  in  the 
midst  of  forces  that  are  breaking  up  the  Empire. 

The  plans  for  the  movement  against  Nanking  crystallise 
November  12  when  General  Hsu  Shao-cheng,  newly  elected 
Military  Governor  of  Nanking,  and  General  Commander  of 
the  United  Forces  of  the  Republic,  leaves  Shanghai  for  Ching- 
kiang to  prepare  the  advance.  The  severity  of  General  Chang 
Hsun  in  suppressing  Revolutionists  within  Nanking  results  in 
meetings  in  the  Arsenal  at  Shanghai  to  form  plans  to  assas- 
sinate him.  November  13  at  night  three  Revolutionists  from 

264 


WHEN    NANKING    FELL 

Wuchang  address  one  of  these  meetings.  Nine  women  with 
foreign-style  coiffure  attend,  of  whom  four  deliver  addresses. 
A  score  of  "Dare  to  Die"  recruits  volunteer  for  the  task  of 
entering  the  city  of  Nanking. 

November  13  at  3  A.M.  thirteen  war-craft,  lately  the  squad- 
ron of  Admiral  Sah  Chen-ping,  assume  the  Revolutionist  flag 
at  Chingkiang  and  place  themselves  under  Revolutionist  or- 
ders. The  Military  Governor  of  Chingkiang  reported  to  the 
Shanghai  Military  Government  that  the  said  Governor  "led1 
a  guard  of  honour  with  a  musical  band  to  welcome  them  in 
person;  all  the  naval  forces  have  been  paid  double  wages  as 
an  encouragement  to  the  men.  Their  coal  supply  has  been 
replenished  in  preparation  for  a  united  assault  to  be  directed 
against  Nanking,  for  the  punishment  of  Chang  Hsun  and  his 
rebellious  troops." 

Eighteen  guns  are  sent  from  Shanghai  by  the  Yangtse  to 
Chingkiang,  and  troops  arrive  from  Hangchow  in  Chekiang. 
November  14  these  begin  leaving  by  rail  and  by  boat  via  the 
Yangtse  and  the  Grand  Canal  for  Chingkiang.  Chingkiang 
is  a  scene  of  marvellous  military  confusion  as  the  recruits 
pour  in  among  the  old  regiments  en  route  westward.  Suchow 
troops  towed  by  steam  launches  pass  out  of  the  Grand  Canal 
at  Chingkiang  and  up  the  Yangtse  toward  Nanking.  In  addi- 
tion the  Governor  of  Suchow  sends  400  "Dare  to  Dies"  and  a 
battery  of  artillery.  Nanking  has  become  a  theatre  of  war 
by  this  time,  and  the  British  staff  of  the  Shanghai-Nanking 
Railway  removes  from  Nanking  to  Chingkiang. 

The  last  troops  for  the  expedition  against  Nanking  leave 
Shanghai  November  17,  when  1,500  depart  amid  scenes  of 
enthusiasm  at  the  railway  station.  In  two  days  nearly  3,000 
have  departed.  General  Hsu  Shao-cheng  continues  from 
Chingkiang  the  advance  by  three  lines,  which  order  he  has 
observed  from  Shanghai.  He  sends  the  main  column  of  5,000 
by  the  centre  along  the  railway  squarely  upon  Nanking.  Two 
thousand  move  by  the  south,  and  the  hills,  against  Purple  Hill, 
and  a  similar  force  goes  by  the  Yangtse  towed  by  launches 
and  convoyed  by  two  gunboats  which  cover  its  landing  and 
advance. 

265 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

November  14  inside  Nanking,  Viceroy  Chang  Jen-chun, 
Tieh  Liang,  and  Chang  Hsun  issue  a  joint  proclamation  saying 
that  the  leaders  and  banditti  have  been  suppressed  and  that 
those  fooled  into  believing  in  the  rebels  can  clear  themselves 
of  guilt  by  destroying  their  rebel  flags,  otherwise  they  will  be 
punished.  The  Viceroy  issues  another  proclamation  ordering 
the  merchants  to  open  their  shops  and  the  City  gates  to  open 
at  the  ordinary  hours,  while  General  Chang  Hsun  issues  a 
proclamation  establishing  the  old  order  of  things,  such  as 
would  set  Nanking  back  into  the  ante-reform  era.  He  sent 
1,000  men  to  oppose  the  Revolutionists  on  the  railway  between 
Lungtan  and  Kaotse,  25  miles  away,  but  his  men  retired  after 
a  repulse.  At  night  the  Revolutionists  ordered  up  five  war- 
vessels  from  Chingkiang  to  hold  in  check  any  possible  move- 
ment by  General  Chang  Hsun. 

General  Chang  Hsun's  scouts  fall  back  on  their  hill  posi- 
tion, around  Purple  Hill,  and  the  wicked  old  fellow  begins  to 
rise  to  the  best  that  is  in  him.  He  has  been  accused  of  "tall 
talk"  in  his  boast  of  marching  on  Chingkiang,  Suchow,  and 
Shanghai,  and  recovering  them  for  his  Emperor.  Report 
says  he  cannot  read  and  he  cannot  write,  that  he  cannot  make 
a  diagram  or  use  a  map.  But  he  can  understand  a  country 
when  he  sees  it,  and  if  he  can  himself  scout  the  Yangtse  Val- 
ley to  Shanghai  he  might  lead  an  army  there.  He  is  a  good 
leader,  all  that  is  in  him  shows,  but  he  cannot  do  everything 
himself.  Among  his  troops  he  has  not  a  single  officer  who 
knows  the  country.  He  is  training  his  officers  to  scout  when 
his  antagonists  move  up  from  Chingkiang  and  occupy  the 
country.  He  finds  that  instead  of  an  advance  he  is  to  with- 
stand a  siege. 

It  takes  the  Revolutionists  a  week  to  cover  35  miles  from 
Chingkiang  to  General  Chang  Hsun's  outposts  around  Purple 
Hill.  November  23  a  letter  comes  to  Viceroy  Chang  Jen- 
chun  and  Tartar  General  Tieh  Liang  from  the  Governor  of 
Suchow,  Chang  Teh-shan,  in  command  of  the  secondary  Revo- 
lutionist base,  asking  them  to  ensure  General  Chang  Hsun's 
non-resistance. 

Wu    Ting-fang    gives    official    warning    to    the    foreign 

266 


WHEN    NANKING    FELL 

consuls  at  Shanghai  of  the  early  bombardment  of  Nan- 
king. 

November  24  the  advance  is  announced,  and  November 
26  battle  begins.  This  the  "Waterloo"  of  correspondents. 
The  Revolutionists  have  perhaps  13,000  troops.  General 
Chang  Hsun  the  Imperialist  in  a  City  wholly  Revolutionist  has 
perhaps  5,000  of  his  own  men,  of  whom  600  have  deserted 
in  a  body.  He  is  obliged  to  hold  Purple  Hill  because  it  com- 
mands the  City. 

Foreign  spectators  are  sprinkled  in  a  semicircle  from  the 
West  City  in  Nanking  around  to  Hsiakuan  on  the  north,  and 
eastward  all  the  way  to  Chingkiang.  Missionaries  are  watch- 
ing their  homes  and  schools,  foreign  marines  are  watching 
the  consulates,  the  foreign  warships  are  observing  the  nature 
of  the  military  contest,  the  foreign  correspondents  are  watch- 
ing everything.  "Waterloo"  is  to  take  six  days.  The  watchers 
peer  as  it  were  into  the  pit  where  the  Chinese  "Napoleon"  with 
really  less  than  5,000  soldiers  keeps  down  50,000  Revolutionist 
sympathisers,  protects  foreign  life  and  property,  guards  23 
miles  of  City  walls,  and  holds  positions  three  miles  into  the 
hills  to  the  East  for  his  Emperor. 

In  the  excitement  of  the  Revolutionist  attack  an  engineer 
of  the  Shanghai-Nanking  Railway,  a  foreign  military  attache, 
and  a  war  correspondent  take  a  locomotive  from  Chingkiang 
and  run  up  the  railway  toward  Nanking,  carried  away  with 
the  excitement  incident  to  the  fighting.  Thinking  they  ought 
to  take  someone  along,  they  load  ten  Revolutionist  soldiers 
on  the  tender.  They  thus  inadvertently  make  themselves  vio- 
lators of  the  neutrality  of  the  railway,  for  they  take  the  Revo- 
lutionist soldiers  into  the  Imperialist  lines.  They  get  in,  and 
get  out  again,  and  the  next  morning  realise  what  they  have 
done. 

"Winkleson,"  says  the  war  correspondent,  "do  you  realise 
that  we  might  all  have  been  captured  yesterday  by  the  Im- 
perialists that  were  just  north  of  the  railway  line,  our  ten  sol- 
diers taken  and  executed  by  General  Chang  Hsun,  and  your- 
self made  captive  on  the  charge  of  being  a  combatant  and  that 
you  would  have  lost  your  job?" 

267 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

"For  Heaven's  sake  don't  mention  it,"  said  the  attache. 
"I  didn't  think  of  it  until  last  night,  and  I  couldn't  sleep." 

November  27  Revolutionists  are  bombarding1  General 
Chang  Hsun's  position,  after  which  they  temporise  over  the 
necessity  of  assaulting  Purple  Hill,  and  after  five  hours'  delib- 
eration are  persuaded  to  make  attacks  from  two  directions. 
Much  powder  is  being  burned  and  much  shot  wasted  without 
any  great  damage.  Chang  Hsun's  General,  Feng,  command- 
ing between  the  South  Gate  and  Purple  Hill,  has  been  trying 
to  enlist  recruits,  but  has  lost  many  who  have  gone  over  to 
the  Revolutionists.  General  Chao,  upon  whom  General  Chang 
Hsun  relies,  with  two  fingers  wounded,  is  operated  on  by  the 
American  missionary  Dr.  Macklin.  He  tells  Dr.  Macklin  that 
he  and  his  men  are  anxious  to  surrender  but  are  afraid  of 
the  Revolutionists,  and  he  cannot  leave  his  men  in  the  lurch. 

"You  had  better  get  together  some  leading  men  here  at 
my  house  and  have  a  conference  about  that,"  said  Dr.  Macklin 
— a  plan  that  was  soon  followed. 

November  30  General  Chang  Hsun  goes  himself  to  Pur- 
ple Hill  with  reinforcements  of  600  men.  He  wishes  to  hold 
the  place  against  assault,  but  only  a  little  while  after  his 
arrival  the  Revolutionists  attacking  from  two  directions  move 
successfully  up  the  southern  slope,  driving  back  the  Imperial- 
ists into  the  City.  General  Chang  Hsun,  when  his  troops 
are  driven  out,  is  forced  back  by  his  own  men  and  leaves 
the  position,  it  is  said  in  tears  over  his  disappointment. 

December  i  General  Li's  artillerymen  on  Tiger  Hill  on  the 
northern  limits  of  Nanking  have  made  an  arrangement  with 
the  Revolutionist  artillery  on  Purple  Hill  by  which  they  are 
to  fire  so  as  not  to  strike  each  other.  General  Chang  Hsun 
sees  that  the  fire  is  ineffective  and  posts  a  detachment  of  Hu- 
nan infantry  over  his  artillerymen  to  force  them  to  score. 
They  do  so,  and  the  Revolutionists  are  taken  by  surprise  and 
send  a  messenger  in  great  alarm  to  ask  what  is  the  matter. 
But  before  their  messenger  returns  a  messenger  from  Gen- 
eral Li's  artillerymen  brings  word  that  it  cannot  be  helped. 
They  have  to  fire  accurately  on  Purple  Hill,  where  their  shells 
will  hit  because  they  are  watched.  At  the  same  time  the  ar- 

268 


WHEN    NANKING    FELL 

tillerymen  propose  that  the  two  sides  fire  at  intervals  of  not 
less  than  three  minutes,  in  turn,  in  order  to  allow  each  to  take 
cover.  This  shows  the  whole  nature  of  the  "battle." 

It  is  December  i,  1911,  last  day  of  "Waterloo."  The  Revo- 
lutionists, foreign  correspondents,  and  curious  idlers  wander 
singly  and  in  groups  among  the  debris  of  the  Imperialist  camp 
and  trenches  on  Purple  Hill.  The  Revolutionist  artillery — 
here  and  there  a  solitary  Krupp  gun — fires  intermittently  into 
Nanking,  two  shells  at  intervals  striking  Pei-chi-ko,  where  are 
Viceroy  Chang  Jen-chun  and  Tartar  General  Tieh  Liang. 

Nightfall  comes,  and  the  conference  in  Dr.  Macklin's 
house  has  decided  on  surrender.  Darkness  finds  Dr.  Macklin 
and  Chinese  assistants  alternately  scraping  the  loose  rubble 
with  which  the  T'aiping  Gate  is  barricaded,  and  peering  over 
the  parapet  of  the  walls  with  the  object  of  communicating 
with  the  Revolutionists,  and  by  the  lanterns  drawing  fire  from 
both  sides  in  the  effort  to  bring  "Wellington"  and  "Na- 
poleon" together — the  age-old  comedy  of  the  peacemaker. 

General  Chang  Hsun  now  has  probably  2,000  or  3,000  sol- 
diers that  are  still  loyal  to  him — but  a  tenth  of  those  which 
he  claimed  at  the  beginning' when  he  defied  the  Throne's  edict 
to  the  Viceroy  ordering  non-resistance.  General  Feng,  Gen- 
eral Chao,  General  Li,  and  all  the  other  commanders  have 
deserted  him  and  are  conniving  with  foreigners  for  the  turning 
over  of  the  City  to  his  antagonists. 

Striking  the  colours  is  an  unknown  thing  to  General  Chang 
Hsun,  likewise  going  over  to  the  enemy,  and  plotting  with 
missionaries  and  consuls  for  surrender.  He  leaves  the  City 
before  dawn  by  the  Hsiakuan  Gate,  his  men  finding  their  way 
across  the  river,  at  various  points  between  Hsiakuan  and 
places  as  far  up  as  30  miles. 

Viceroy  Chang  Jen-chun  finds  refuge  on  a  Japanese  man- 
of-war.  Tieh  Liang  accompanies  him,  and  the  two  find  their 
way  to  Japan.  All  that  exists  of  the  Chinese  "Waterloo"  is 
written  in  the  Western  Press.  December  2  Dr.  Macklin,  Rev. 
Mr.  Garritt,  American  missionaries,  with  Mr.  Gilbert,  Ameri- 
can Vice-Consul,  carrying  the  American  flag,  arrange  between 
the  willing  forces  of  both  sides  for  the  transfer  of  Nanking 

269 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

from  the  hands  of  General  Chao,  late  Imperialist,  to  General 
Liang,  Revolutionist.  The  latter  occupies  Nanking,  and  im- 
mediately after,  an  accident  occurs  in  the  Tartar  City,  the 
domicile  of  the  Manchu  garrison,  where  a  mine  unexpectedly 
explodes,  killing  and  wounding  about  40  men.  The  Revolu- 
tionists assume  that  it  is  the  signal  for  attack  upon  them 
and  begin  killing  and  burning.  When  it  is  over,  and  the  City 
has  resumed  its  normal  life,  a  Roman  Catholic  Father  knowing 
all  the  battle-ground  says  he  has  not  seen  more  than  240 
bodies.  Mr.  Stuart,  the  American  missionary,  a  good  ob- 
server, told  me  he  thought  there  could  not  have  been  more 
than  300  people  killed  at  the  taking  of  Nanking. 

Thus  the  last  of  the  great  cities  in  the  Yangtse  Valley  to 
fall  to  the  Revolutionists  inaugurates  the  capture  finally 
by  the  republican  idea  of  the  greatest  of  the  world's  em- 
pires. 

Leaving  the  mean  task  of  surrendering  the  City  to  his  dis- 
loyal generals,  who  fall  heir  to  a  battery  of  six  of  his  3-centi- 
metre Krupp  mountain  guns,  among  other  things,  General 
Chang  Hsun  moves  northward  to  more  friendly  territory.  He 
commandeers  the  rolling  stock  of  the  Tientsin-Pukow  Rail- 
way, upon  which  he  loads  his  men  at  Pukow.  One  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  dollars  (silver)  in  bullion  he  dumps  down 
in  the  train-yard  at  Pukow,  under  guard  of  200  men,  and  in- 
structs the  Railway  to  forward  it.  Another  body  of  soldiers 
comes  along,  claims  it  as  arrears  of  pay,  attacks  the  guard 
under  sanction  of  the  law  that  the  man  behind  the  gun  does 
not  have  to  wait  for  his  pay,  and  helps  himself.  The  troops 
move  off,  and  the  remainder  disappears  among  camp  followers 
and  common  coolies. 

General  Chang  Hsun  has  before  him  the  desolate  famine 
region  of  North-eastern  Anhuei,  and  must  travel  a  road  nearly 
200  miles  before  he  can  find  a  suitable  base.  Revolutionaries 
with  two  guns  are  awaiting  him  at  a  point  30  miles  up  the 
railway  at  Pengpu,  but  warned  by  telegraph  he  stops  the  train, 
flanks  the  obstructing  force  and  moves  on,  leaving  60  bodies 
around  the  station.  The  next  known  of  him  he  is  on  the 
Anhuei-Shantung  border  with  headquarters  at  Hsuchow-fu 

270 


WHEN    NANKING    FELL 

in  Shantung,  where  he  is  undauntedly  recruiting.     He  claims 
to  have  20,000  men,  and  has  about  12,000. 

General  Chang  Hsun  does  not  know  what  he  is  going  to 
take  or  hold  "for  his  Emperor,"  but  he  is  a  "stand-patter." 
He  looms  up  in  the  history  of  Peking  in  December. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 
SUN  YAT-SEN  EMERGES  FROM  OBSCURITY 

DECEMBER  2,  1911,  found  no  avowed  Imperialists  south 
of  the  great  Yangtse  River.  December  5  the  Shanghai 
and  Nanking  Revolutionists,  aided  by  General  Huang 
Hsing,  the  forerunner  of  Sun  Yat-sen,  have  selected  Nanking 
to  be  the  republican  Capital  and  are  assembling  there  authori- 
ties from  the  provinces.  Tang  Shao-yi,  the  Envoy  from  Pe- 
king, has  found  at  Wuchang  no  one  to  negotiate  with,  and 
December  n  telegraphs  of  his  departure  for  Shanghai. 

December  14  the  tentative  republican  organisation  at 
Shanghai  has  been  converted  into  a  wider  governmental  or- 
ganisation and  transferred  to  Nanking  the  Capital.  Sun  Yat- 
sen  is  elected  as  "First"  President. 

Tang  Shao-yi,  with  suite,  assistants,  and  servants,  num- 
bered at  no  less  than  80,  passes  the  Capital  December  16,  and 
December  17  reaches  Shanghai.  To  safeguard  the  rights  of 
the  conservative  Imperialist  North  he  is  accompanied  by  a 
score  of  representatives  of  various  provinces,  selected  by  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  to  offset  the  Revolutionist  Assembly  gathered  at 
Nanking  under  which  the  peace  negotiations  are  to  be  directed. 
In  the  republican  atmosphere  under  which  the  Envoy  Tang 
Shao-yi  capitulates,  they  disappear. 

Sun  Yat-sen  has  left  Singapore  for  Hongkong  waters,  and 
is  in  fact  on  the  last  lap  of  the  last  of  his  tours  of  the  world. 
The  dispatches  say  he  is  accompanied  by  "General  Homer 
Lea"  and  is  closely  guarded.  He  is  a  mystery.  He  is  vaguely 
known  as  a  human  shuttle  that  has  moved  for  some  years 
from  colony  to  colony  among  those  Western  nations  who  have 
sheltered  and  encouraged  their  borrowed  Chinese  citizens  and 
subjects.  Shunning  publicity,  he  has  been  at  intervals  since 
the  Szechuan  outbreak  of  September,  1911,  reported  at  Chi- 
cago, Paris,  and  Penang.  He  approaches  the  region  where 

272 


SUN  YAT-SEN  EMERGES  FROM  OBSCURITY 

in  his  native  land  the  aims  of  his  life  are  to  be  realised.  Not 
until  December  25  does  he  come  up  the  Huangpu  from  Wu- 
sung  and  disembark  at  the  jetty  in  the  foreign  settlement  of 
Shanghai.  He  is  met  by  delegates  representing  the  provinces. 

The  coming  of  the  future  President  is  very  simple.  He 
goes  by  motor  car  of  a  friend  to  the  latter's  residence  in  Bub- 
bling Well  Road. 

Wu  Ting-fang  is  naturally  the  first  to  call  on  Sun  Yat-sen 
and  offers  him  the  Presidency  of  all  China,  nothing  less  from 
Wu.  Sun  Yat-sen  returns  Wu  Ting-fang's  visit  of  state  dur- 
ing the  day.  The  plan  is  that  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  shall  be  final 
President,  and  \Vu  Ting-fang  has  in  mind  the  amalgamation 
of  the  southern  independencies  under  the  provisional  Presi- 
dency of  Sun  Yat-sen. 

After  the  visit  Sun  Yat-sen  establishes  his  residence  in  a 
foreign  house,  No.  408  Avenue  Paul  Brunat,  closely  patrolled 
night  and  day.  The  attention  and  respect  which  he  commands 
greatly  impress  foreigners.  Among  his  first  callers  are 
General  Li  Yuan-hung's  delegates  from*  the  Wuchang  Re- 
public. His  simplicity  and  confidence  make  him  the  centre 
of  the  republicans  and  Revolutionists.  There  is  nothing  spec- 
tacular about  him,  unless  it  is  his  mysterious  following.  It 
was  a  fact  noted  by  every  interested  person  in  Shanghai  that 
in  addition  to  the  deputations  of  Revolutionists  and  others 
who  were  present  to  greet  him  on  his  arrival  there  were  a 
number  of  Japanese  who  became  his  secretaries  and  advisers. 
But  the  star  in  the  galaxy  of  his  satellites  was  "General 
Homer  Lea."  He  had  been  repeatedly  announced  by  the  for- 
eign dispatches  as  an  adviser,  in  others  as  the  designated  chief 
of  staff  of  the  new  Republic.  He  remained  an  unnecessary 
enigma  to  many  foreigners  and  Chinese.  Throughout  Sun 
Yat-sen's  term  of  office  he  was  in  close  connection  with  him, 
disappearing  from  the  stage  of  the  Republic  with  the  passing 
of  Nanking  as  the  Capital. 

December  27  the  provincial  delegates  at  Nanking  attend- 
ing the  Revolutionist  Assembly  visit  Sun  Yat-sen  in  a  body 
at  Shanghai. 

December  29  the  Revolutionist  Assembly  at  Nanking  form- 

273 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

ally  elects  Sun  Yat-sen  President  of  the  Republic  of  China  by 
17  votes  to  one,  and  elects  First  Provisional  Republican  Presi- 
dent Li  Yuan-hung  to  be  Vice-President. 

The  peace  conference  holds  a  meeting  that  forms  the  agree- 
ment for  determining  the  future  farm  of  government  by  na- 
tional conference. 

A  great  banquet  attended  by  100  leaders  of  the  revolu- 
tionary movement  in  honour  of  Sun  Yat-sen  is  held  in  the 
evening  at  the  Palace  Hotel. 

Wu  Ting-fang,  the  peace  delegate  who  has  forced  the 
peace  negotiations  from  the  beginning,  states  "fourteen  prov- 
inces have  absolutely  declared  for  the  Republic.  We  control 
twelve  divisions  of  the  army ;  two  more  are  coming.  We  hold 
the  entire  navy.  Two  provinces  remain  Imperial  and  two  are 
neutral.  There  is  no  government  in  Peking.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
is  the  only  representative  of  government  there  except  the 
infant  Emperor. 

"The  sooner  the  Powers  recognise  the  real  situation  instead 
of  clinging  to  harmful  and  intangible  sentiment,  the  sooner  will 
order  be  restored  in  China.  Hesitation  to  recognise  the  re- 
publican cause  will  certainly  prolong  the  stagnation  of  trade 
and  will  be  responsible  for  much  bloodshed  should  fighting 
begin  again."  Wu  Ting-fang  at  this  time  was  still  fighting 
for  recognition  by  the  Powers. 

Sun  Yat-sen  states  that  the  entire  movement  is  united  and 
that  there  are  no  serious  differences.  He  looks  upon  the  Revo- 
lution as  the  outcome  of  his  plans  and  of  more  than  fifteen 
years  of  his  own  revolutionary  work. 

"I  consider  it  my  duty,"  says  he  in  a  communication  to  his 
friends  in  the  United  States  following  his  election,  "to  accept 
the  Presidency.  My  policy  will  be  to  secure  peace  and  a 
stable  government  by  the  promptest  methods  possible.  My 
single  aim  is  to  ensure  the  peace  and  contentment  of  the  mil- 
lions of  my  fellow-countrymen." 

The  peace  conference  is  disappearing,  overshadowed  by 
the  "President."  Its  work  is  carried  on,  but  it  is  henceforth 
directed  from  Nanking,  and  it  is  easy  to  see  that  it  is  not 
taken  .seriously  by  the  Republican  Government  and  that  the 

274 


SUN  YAT-SEN  EMERGES  FROM  OBSCURITY 

latter  fully  expects  the  Throne  at  Peking  and  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
to  obey  its  demands. 

About  2,000  soldiers  proceed  from  Shanghai  to  Nanking 
on  the  day  of  Sun  Yat-sen's  election,  and  military  concentra- 
tion at  Nanking  is  an  adopted  policy,  being  carried  out  under 
General  Huang  Hsing. 


CHAPTER  XXV 
INAUGURATING  A  CHINESE  PRESIDENT 

EVENTS  that  are  to  sweep  away  the  Manchu  Throne, 
finally,  and  that  make  Nanking  the  centre  of  the  world 
are  now  enacted.  The  Revolutionist  Assembly  at 
Nanking  overrides  Wu  Ting-fang,  making  more  onerous  the 
so-called  peace  conditions  offered  by  him,  and  making  all  the 
more  appropriate  the  coincidental  action  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
in  cancelling  the  authority  of  his  envoy  Tang  Shao-yi  as 
Peace  Commissioner.  The  thing  that  is  most  necessary  in  all 
the  world  to  be  done  is  begun,  when  Sun  Yat-sen  goes  to 
Nanking. 

January  i,  1912,  5:30  P.M.,  he  arrives  at  the  Hsiakuan  sta- 
tion at  Nanking  in  a  special  train  from  Shanghai.  Accom- 
panying him  are  innumerable  delegates,  military  officers,  and 
last,  the  Press  chorus,  native  and  foreign.  The  Lion  Hill 
forts  nearest  the  station  fire  a  salute.  Revolutionist  soldiery 
guards  all  the  surroundings  and  extends  over  the  whole  route 
to  the  Viceroy's  yamen,  which  last  has  been  guarded  by  Im- 
perialists under  General  Chang  Hsun.  This  route  has  been 
the  line  of  escape  of  Viceroy  Chang  Jen-chun  and  Tartar 
General  Tieh  Liang.  Ten  thousand  soldiers  are  in  line,  and 
the  route  is  packed  in  many  places  with  the  populace.  It  is 
silent — it  does  not  know  a  republic  when  it  sees  it.  The 
crowds  have  never  thought  for  themselves,  so  they  do  not 
know  how  to  give  outward  expression  on  this  occasion,  nor 
do  they  know  just  why  there  should  be  any  expression.  When 
the  inaugural  party  and  the  President-elect  change  their  route, 
nothing  happens — the  crowds  are  lost  in  the  night,  no  one 
mentions  them. 

At  6:15  P.M.  Sun  Yat-sen  and  the  train  and  its  people 
reach  the  Viceroy's  yamen  station,  where  are  the  burned 
buildings  connected  with  the  incident  of  the  entente  of  the 

276 


INAUGURATING  A  CHINESE   PRESIDENT 

prisoners  November  9,  1911.  Sun  Yat-sen's  carriage  stops 
between  lines  of  guards,  and  in  a  few  minutes  there  is  a  furore 
aboard,  and  a  man  hysterically  protesting,  screaming,  weeping 
and  struggling,  is  brought  out  and  thrown  into  the  station 
waiting-room  and  searched.  It  is  the  Chinese  offering  to  the 
democracy  of  cranks.  That  fraternity  has  already  had  its 
republican  inauguration,  when  Sun  Yat-sen,  closely  sur- 
rounded by  guards,  descends  from  the  train  and  walks  silently 
with  bared  head  to  a  carriage  waiting  for  him.  It  is  growing 
dark.  It  is  cold  and  wet,  and  there  is  a  drizzling  rain.  A 
mounted  escort  led  by  trumpeters  blowing  a  fanfare  precedes 
and  follows  the  carriage.  The  bodyguard,  members  of  the 
inaugural  party,  and  soldiers  follow  on  foot  the  short  distance 
to  the  yamen  entrance. 

The  trumpeters  lead  the  wonderful  and  glorious  little  in- 
augural procession  through  the  throng  held  back  by  lines  of 
soldiers,  to  the  spacious  and  fantastically  enclosed  court  before 
the  Viceroy's  yamen.  It  passes  slowly  under  a  quaint  wooden 
p'ailow,  or  honorary  arch,  into  the  almost  sacred  enclosure 
from  which  the  last  representatives  of  the  Manchus  have  fled, 
and  from  which,  next  to  the  last,  Tuan  Fang,  departed  by 
the  long  road  of  misadventure  upon  which  he  has  now  lost  his 
head.  This  quaint  p'ailow  is  an  arch  of  triumph  to  the  simple 
man  of  the  people  whom  the  people  are  about  to  hail  as 
President.  No  gem-studded  cloth  of  gold  and  martial  banners 
such  as  hung  from  the  arches  of  European  conquerors  hang 
from  this  graceful,  quaint,  and  airy  p'ailow  of  racing  dragons, 
mazy  eaves,  and  floating  roofs.  It  is  decorated  with  the  em- 
blem of  the  peaceable  conquest  of  the  Empire  by  the  Republic 
— the  white  ensign — and  with  evergreens  from  the  temples. 
The  rainbow  flag  is  also  here,  and  the  naval  colours. 

It  is  the  evening  of  the  first  day  of  the  new  year  1912. 
Sun  Yat-sen  steps  from  his  carriage  and  walks  the  long 
approach  to  the  yamen  leading  under  a  succession  of  p'ailows 
and,  low  gate-houses  decorated  in  red  paint  and  lacquer,  but 
for  the  most  part  painted  white  and  trimmed  with  evergreens 
illuminated  by  multicoloured  electric  lights.  It  is  a  union  of 
Chinese  phantasmagoria  and  Saxon  New  Year  rite  and  cere- 

277 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

mony.  There  is  a  dull  glitter  on  the  bayonets  of  the  Revolu- 
tionist soldiery  as  the  President-elect  passes,  dressed  in  a  plain 
khaki  military  suit  with  military  cape,  followed  by  his  entour- 
age. 

The  fanfare  dies  away  and  the  horsemen  dismount.  The 
guards  and  the  crowd  disperse.  Leaving  the  yamen  entrance, 
there  are  two  large  courts,  divided  by  gate-houses,  and  a  third 
leads  to  a  large  reception-  or  audience-room  newly  papered 
and  whitewashed  and  furnished  with  foreign  stoves,  into  which 
room  the  party  enters.  Sun  Yat-sen  withdraws  into  a  confer- 
ence with  General  Huang  Hsing,  his  military  chief,  and  Gen- 
eral Hsu  Shao-cheng,  commander  of  the  expedition  that  took 
Nanking,  and  the  leaders  of  the  provincial  delegates.  Three 
hours'  preliminaries  succeed,  pending  the  conclusion  of  which 
dignitaries  and  witnesses  arrive  in  the  old  audience-chamber 
to  be  present  at  the  inauguration. 

Before  about  100  spectators  the  inauguration  begins.  Sun 
Yat-sen  takes  oath  as  President  of  China.  With  great  dignity 
and  showing  something  of  the  strain  which  the  responsibilities 
of  the  occasion  have  placed  upon  him,  he  pledges  the  restora- 
tion of  peace,  the  establishment  of  government  founded  on 
the  will  of  the  people,  and  the  dethronement  of  the  Manchu 
rulers,  in  conclusion  swearing  to  resign  office  when  these  are 
accomplished,  in  order  that  the  people  may  elect  a  President 
of  United  China. 

Mr.  Ching,  chairman  of  the  Shansi  provincial  delegation, 
hands  President  Sun  Yat-sen  the  seal  of  the  Provisional  Mili- 
tary Government  of  the  United  Provinces  of  China.  Presi- 
dent Sun  Yat-sen  then  reads  his  inaugural  address,  or  proc- 
lamation, and  the  inauguration  is  concluded  half  an  hour  be- 
fore midnight.  This  fact  serves  to  date  the  Republic  of  China 
from  the  first  day  of  the  year  1912  and  to  mark  the  adoption 
by  China  of  the  Western  calendar. 

China's  first  presidential  salute,  "twenty-one  guns,"  from 
Lion  Hill,  nearly  five  miles  away,  reaches  the  midnight  listen- 
ers. A  new  Republic  is  written  in  the  list  of  nations. 

I  have  related  the  exciting  events  of  the  first  month  of  Sun 
Yat-sen's  Presidency  as  they  affect  Peking.  The  whirl  and 

278 


INAUGURATING  A  CHINESE   PRESIDENT 

stir  caused  in  Peking  in  January  was  worthy  of  the  energy 
and  vigour  with  which  the  new  Government  was  inaugurated 
at  Nanking. 

There  is  now  no  armistice,  it  having  expired  8  A.M.  Decem- 
ber 31,  1911,  and  fighting  is  going  on  before  Hankow — a  con- 
sideration that  has  to  do  with  the  promptness  with  which  Sun 
Yat-sen  has  taken  the  oath  of  office  near  midnight  instead  of 
on  the  following  day  as  originally  intended.  The  govern- 
mental machine  which  gave  the  Republic  the  dynamic  power 
that  hustled  the  Imperialists  at  Peking  was  promptly  set 
up. 

President  Sun  Yat-sen  made  his  military  chief  General 
Huang  Hsing,  of  Hanyang  and  Wuchang  fame,  his  Minister 
of  War.  Wu  Ting-fang  received  the  post  of  Minister  of  Jus- 
tice in  line  with  his  duties  as  peace  negotiator,  while  an  en- 
tirely new  man  of  European  education,  Wang  Ch'ung-huei, 
was  made  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs.  Chen  Chin-tao  of  the 
University  of  California,  late  Director  of  the  Government 
Bank  at  Peking,  late  Vice-Minister  in  the  trial  Cabinet  of 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  as  Premier,  is  made  Minister  of  Finance. 
All  the  important  ministries  are  filled  by  the  President  with 
men  of  about  his  own  age — most  of  them  younger. 

The  oath  taken  by  President  Sun  Yat-sen  to  dethrone  the 
Manchu  ruler  is  the  ring  of  the  lance  upon  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's 
armour  that  causes  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  to  open 
her  purse-strings  in  an  attempt  to  replenish  the  Imperial  war- 
chest  ;  also  that  causes  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  to  take  the  belligerent 
attitude  on  behalf  of  a  monarchy,  boasting  that  he  believes 
he  can  hold  the  North  until  the  South  disintegrates.  It  is 
under  these  circumstances  that  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  declines  Sun 
Yat-sen's  offer  of  the  Presidency,  which  offer  is  in  effect  a 
peremptory  notification  from  the  Republic  to  throw  over  the 
Manchus  at  once. 

January  5,  1912,  President  Sun  Yat-sen  and  his  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  Wang  Ch'ung-huei,  issue  a  manifesto  to  the 
Powers,  the  substance  of  which  the  President  has  read  in  his 
inaugural  address.  It  is  an  indictment  of  the  Manchus  for 
responsibility  for  all  the  evils  of  the  country,  and  a  plea  for 

279 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

recognition  by  the  Powers  and  for  admission  into  the  family 
of  nations. 

Simultaneously  with  the  manifesto  of  the  Republican  Gov- 
ernment asking  for  recognition  from  the  Powers  is  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai's  action  in  laying  before  the  representatives  of  the 
Powers  in  Peking  the  peace  conference  correspondence,  in 
which  he  scores  a  point  against  the  Republic — the  foreign 
diplomats  taking  his  view  that  the  republicans  are  in  error. 

The  President  Sun  Yat-sen  and  Premier  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
are  now  in  communication  respecting  but  one  thing,  namely 
armistice. 

The  effect  of  the  pressure  of  the  new  machine  of  state  on 
Peking  is  felt  January  10,  when  the  Republican  Government 
offers  in  terms  its  demands  for  abdication.  It  is  insistent, 
and  forces  a  readjustment  in  relations  with  Peking.  As  a 
result  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  reiterated  repudiations  by  telegraph 
of 'the  terms  of  the  peace  convention  agreed  to  by  his  Envoy, 
Tang  Shao-yi,  Wu  Ting-fang  at  Shanghai  announces  that  the 
republican  armies  are  prepared  to  march  upon  Peking,  and 
President  Sun  Yat-sen  announces  that  if  the  negotiations  for 
peace  fail  he  will  take  the  field  in  person  in  the  advance  upon 
Peking.  The  renewal  of  the  armistice  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  secures 
through  assurances  that  the  Court  accepts  the  principles  of 
abdication. 

The  Republic  at  Nanking  is  going  off  with  a  hurrah.  It 
has  given  official  notification  to  the  Powers  of  its  organisation 
and  is  extremely  active  and  optimistic.  The  busiest  depart- 
ment is  the  War  Office.  Minister  of  War  Huang  Hsing  is 
organising  the  reinforcement  of  Wuchang  with  General  Li 
Tien-tai  in  command.  Twelve  republican  war-vessels  are  ly- 
ing in  the  river  off  Hsiakuan,  which  the  President  in  the  ex- 
Viceroy's  yacht  reviews  January  19.  Canton  troops  are  ar- 
riving at  Shanghai,  where  some  are  held  for  the  expedition 
to  the  North  by  sea,  and  others  brought  to  Nanking  for  the 
advance  up  the  Tientsin-Pukow  Railway.  On  this  latter  line 
the  republican  army  has  crossed  the  Huai  River  and  is  only 
about  40  miles  from  General  Chang  Hsun's  base  at  Hsuchow- 
fu. 

280 


INAUGURATING   A   CHINESE   PRESIDENT 

A  continued  armistice  is  made  impossible  by  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai's  repeated  repudiation  of  the  so-called  peace  agreement, 
and  in  the  deadlock  President  Sun  Yat-sen  reinforces  the 
republican  foothold  in  Shantung.  He  sends  to  Chefoo  two 
transports  loaded  with  Cantonese  troops  and  convoyed  by  a 
cruiser.  The  Republic  is  massing  its  military  and  has  formu- 
lated magnificent  plans  to  force  the  Manchus  out  of  Peking, 
obtain  recognition  from  the  Powers,  and  borrow  money. 

January  22,  a  week  after  his  first  expedition  to  Chefoo 
and  Tengchou,  and  when  his  second  is  about  to  land,  Presi- 
dent Sun  Yat-sen  gives  out  that  he  is  absolutely  convinced,  as 
he  has  always  been,  of  the  success  and  righteousness  of  the 
revolt.  "If  we  fail  to  secure  a  peace  and  a  stable  government 
now,"  says  he,  "the  responsibility  must  rest  on  Peking." 

President  Sun  Yat-sen  understands  that  the  Manchus  ac- 
cepted his  terms  of  abdication,  and  that  after  assuring  him 
of  this  fact  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  makes  it  a  condition  of  abdication 
that  the  Republican  Government  dissolve  within  two  days  after 
the  abdication  edict.  The  Republic  is  more  stirred  by  this 
than  it  has  ever  been.  It  perceives  the  intention  of  the  Throne 
to  delegate  its  powers,  and  that  it  has  in  view  abdicating,  as  it 
were,  in  favour  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  President  Sun  Yat-sen 
is  convinced  that  the  Imperial  Clan  and  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  have 
in  this  plan  the  support  of  "outside  influences."  In  fear  of 
Japan  the  Republic  sends  its  ultimatum  to  Peking,  demanding 
full  and  complete  surrender  and  abdication  by  the  Emperor 
and  the  elimination  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  from  participation  in 
the  Republican  Provisional  Government  until  after  recognition 
of  the  Republic  is  obtained  from  foreign  Powers.  It  is  here 
that  the  threat  to  open  fighting  January  29,  8  A.M.,  on  expira- 
tion of  the  armistice,  is  made. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 
FINANCING  A  FLOWERY  REPUBLIC 

WITH  this  magnificent  plan  of  confederation  and  war  it 
is  a  mystery  where  the  republican  funds  are  coming 
from,  and  the  Government  in  Nanking  is  obliged  to 
solve  the  problem  of  a  system  of  finance.  Money  has  been 
contributed  from  Chinese  revolutionary  centres  in  foreign 
countries  for  revolt,  but  for  governmental  purposes  larger 
sums  are  required.  The  Republic  has  not  the  legitimate  sources 
of  revenue  of  a  State  in  rebellion,  such  as  have  the  coun- 
tries of  Central  and  South  America,  for  example.  Her  mari- 
time customs  are  in  the  hands  of  the  foreign  Powers  and 
their  revenues  are  all  appropriated  for  the  payment  of  China's 
foreign  debt.  Part  of  the  native  customs  revenues  are  under 
the  control  of  foreign  creditors,  as  well  as  the  revenues  of 
railways  and  some  industries.  The  provinces  which  followed 
President  General  Li  Yuan-hung's  appeal  and  revolted  on  their 
own  responsibility  with  the  view  of  confederation  later  are  still 
in  possession  of  all  their  sources  of  revenue,  which  in  some 
cases  is  not  sufficient  for  provincial  requirements. 

Revolutionary  scrip  has  been  printed  at  Wuchang  from 
the  first,  and  was  begun  at  Shanghai,  November,  1911,  where 
notes  were  issued  payable  on  demand  and  signed  by  "M.  Y. 
Sung,  Manager  of  the  China  Bank,  Agents  for  the  Military 
Government."  One  side  was  in  English  and  the  other  in 
Chinese.  Another  note  put  out  at  the  same  time  promised  to 
pay  three  months  from  date.  These  notes  were  widely  ac-. 
cepted,  but  became  so  plentiful  during  the  period  of  mobilisa- 
tion and  nationalisation  of  government  at  Nanking  that  the 
soldiers  who  received  their  pay  in  them  had  to  dispose  of 
them  by  force. 

President  Sun  Yat-sen  is  determined  not  to  embark  on  the 
dangerous  policy  of  disposing  of  natural  resources  to  foreign 

282 


FINANCING   A    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

money-lenders,  and  to  concessionnaires  besieging  his  yamen, 
and  the  only  visible  source  of  revenue  for  the  Central  Repub- 
lican Government  appears  to  be  the  Chinese  industrial  com- 
panies. The  Minister  of  War,  General  Huang  Hsing,  acting 
for  all  military  forces,  now  calls  upon  industrial  companies  to 
contribute  to  the  republican  treasury.  The  China  Merchants' 
Steam  Navigation  Company,  one  of  the  largest  Chinese  indus- 
trial concerns,  is  asked  for  $7,000,000.  Fear  of  the  Japanese, 
who  assume  premier  place  in  the  offer  of  a  loan  secured  by  it, 
prevents  the  hypothecation  of  this  Company.  The  Hanyang 
Iron  Works  at  Hanyang  and  the  iron  mines  in  the  vicinity  are 
next  levied  upon.  Ironically  enough,  it  is  the  Japanese  who 
come  forward  to  aid,  and  it  is  Japanese  money  loaned  on  these 
Iron  Works  and  mines  that  the  Republic  accepts  finally. 

Finance  is  to  the  fore  and  is  in  advance  of  all  other  inter- 
ests. Chen  Chin-tao  nominated  Minister  of  Finance  is  only  a 
nominal  Minister,  and  lives  at  the  Astor  House  in  Shanghai. 
He  was  to  become  later  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  Minister  of  Finance, 
and  is  the  most  wanted  of  all  the  Ministers,  unless  it  is  War 
Minister  General  Huang  Hsing.  He  is  the  most  pulled  and 
hauled  and  bandied  about  of  these  reformers  whose  ability 
is  an  acknowledged  asset  to  New  China.  Chen  Chin-tao  had 
declined  the  post  of  Vice-Minister  of  Finance  in  the  trial 
Cabinet  of  Premier  Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  He  was  in  Peking  when 
first  appointed  by  the  Revolutionists,  and  received  anonymous 
warning  to  accept.  He  left  his  home,  as  previously  mentioned, 
thinking  himself  unobserved,  reached  the  Peking  railway  sta- 
tion, entered  a  coupe,  locked  himself  in,  and  closed  the  cur- 
tains. When  he  arrived  at  Tientsin  a  card  was  thrust  into  his 
coupe  with  the  written  warning  that  his  movements  were 
watched,  and  again  warning  him  to  accept  his  appointment. 
Finding  himself  the  object  of  equal  attention  from  both  parties 
in  the  Revolution,  he  turned  around  and  went  back  to  Peking 
by  the  next  train. 

The  task  of  reorganising  China's  finance  is  not  an  enviable 
one.  The  Chinese  people  have  never  recognised  a  national 
government.  There  never  has  been  in  China  a  national  do- 
mestic bond.  There  is  no  such  thing  within  the  Empire  as 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

national  credit.  More  than  this,  the  Republic  has  abrogated 
many  taxes,  and  it  is  one  of  the  principles  of  the  Republic 
that  the  people  have  long  been  overtaxed.  Valuable  as  are  his 
talents  and  future  services,  Chen  Chin-tao  can  do  little. 

The  various  departments  of  the  Republican  Government 
are  rinding  their  own  funds,  and  they  rely  upon  Sun  Yat-sen 
under  whose  leadership  contributions  from  societies  and  in- 
dividuals at  home  and  abroad  come  in.  He  is  the  late  financial 
agent  of  the  Chinese  Revolution,  having  started  abroad  in  1910 
to  collect  funds  for  the  revolt,  which  was  then  planned  for 
April,  1912.  December  25,  1911,  when  he  landed  at  Shanghai 
he  was  received  by  the  members  of  the  Shanghai  Republic  as  a 
valuable  financial  asset.  It  was  believed  that  he  actually  had 
money  or  that  he  held  in  his  grasp  the  reins  of  financial  con- 
nections to  vitalise  the  Revolution.  As  a  matter  of  fact  he 
did  not  bring  with  him  the  promise  of  any  foreign  loan,  and 
upon  his  inauguration  as  President  he  has  the  same  financial 
question  that  faces  Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  He  must  get  money  from 
the  Great  Powers,  and  before  this  can  be  done  the  Republic 
must  be  recognised  by  them. 

The  fact  that  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  unable  to  get  a  foreign 
loan  encourages  the  leaders  of  the  Republic  to  believe  that, 
once  recognised,  the  bankers  of  the  Great  Powers  will  loan 
to  the  Republic.  The  whole  question  of  finance  is  the  life  of 
the  Republic.  The  vehemence  with  which  it  insists  upon  rec- 
ognition is  merely  the  gauge  of  its  financial  distress.  Recog- 
nition to  the  Republican  Government  at  Nanking  means  credit. 

An  illustration  of  the  distress  due  to  the  pressure  for 
money  is  the  growing  burden  of  mobilising  at  Nanking  for 
the  advance  on  Peking.  The  budget  at  Nanking  is  approach- 
ing $1,000,000  daily.  President  Sun  Yat-sen  issues  an  appeal 
to  the  generals  of  the  Imperialist  Army  calling  upon  them  not 
to  resist  the  Republican  advance,  which  may  be  said  to  have 
resulted  in  the  revolt  of  almost  the  whole  Imperialist  Army, 
since  forty-six  "generals"  united  in  acceding  to  his  prayer 
and  gave  their  ultimatum  to  the  Throne.  This  is  a  master- 
stroke of  finance  that  immediately  checks  the  rise  of  the  war 
budget. 

284 


FINANCING   A    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

I  was  brought  in  contact  with  this  financial  question  imme- 
diately I  reached  the  Yangtse  Valley.  Wherever  I  went  I  met 
old  friends  of  the  revolutionary  party  whom  I  had  known  in 
North  China.  One  of  them,  who  had  for  some  years  made 
his  home,  for  safety,  in  the  Shanghai  settlements,  where  he 
had  been  an  official  agent  for  progressive  governors  and  vice- 
roys of  the  provinces,  came  to  my  rooms  in  Shanghai  to  see  if 
he  could  get  a  loan  of  $2,000,000  on  the  Kiangnan  Arsenal  at 
Shanghai.  I  had  not  seen  him  for  about  six  years  and  my  last 
recollection  of  him  in  Peking,  where  he  wore  the  native  dress 
of  cap,  queue,  and  gown,  was  as  a  rabid  reformer  expostulat- 
ing against  ancestor-worship,  to  the  great  distress  of  his 
venerable  Confucianist  father.  He  was  now  dressed  entirely 
in  foreign  clothes,  and  with  a  thin  pompadour  looked  like  a 
German  socialist. 

"I  represent  General  Li  Ping-shu,"  said  he,  after  brief 
salutations,  "and  I  want  to  get  $2,000,000." 

"How  are  you  going  to  get  it?" 

"I  want  to  get  it  on  the  Arsenal,"  said  he.  "The  Arsenal 
is  worth  a  great  deal  of  money,  and  that  is  a  small  loan  for 
such  a  large  asset.  General  Li  Ping-shu  can  get  money  from 
the  Japanese,  but  he  would  rather  have  it  from  the  Americans 
and  is  willing  to  pay  them  more  for  it." 

"But  I  am  not  a  financier,"  said  I,  "how  can  I  help  you?" 

"You  can  give  me  references." 

"But  we  have  no  American  bankers  here." 

"But  you  have  financial  agents  here  and  an  American 
bank." 

"I  can  give  you  their  names,  but  am  not  sufficiently  ac- 
quainted with  your  affairs  to  give  you  recommendations." 

With  these  .names  he  went  hopefully  away.  The  fact  was 
the  Nanking  and  Shanghai  administrations  were  buttonholing 
every  promising  foreigner,  they  were  catching  at  every  finan- 
cial straw.  The  only  existing  plan  of  financing  the  Republic 
was  that  of  each  province  being  responsible  for  all  expendi- 
tures required  or  made  within  its  limits.  Kiangsu,  the  prov- 
ince in  which  Shanghai  is  situated,  was  responsible  for  the 
fleet.  The  Arsenal  was  its  base.  It  was  not  strange  that  the 

285 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

Chinese  did  not  want  to  hypothecate  it  to  the  Japanese.  Japan 
was  acquiring  a  derisive  international  fame,  such  as  England 
so  long  enjoyed  in  the  role  of  the  "honest  broker."  It  was 
for  the  same  reason  that  the  China  Merchants'  Steam  Naviga- 
tion Company,  which  furnished  the  fleet  with  an  auxiliary  and 
was  the  Republic's  Merchant  Marine,  was  never  finally  hy- 
pothecated. 

There  are  two  views  held  in  China;  one  that  China  is  in 
dire  need  of  money,  the  other  that  she  is  rich  in  her  poverty 
for  the  reason  that  a  country  that  believes  that  it  does  not 
need  to  borrow  is  invincible  in  its  strength.  Such  might  be 
the  case  with  a  foeless  land,  but  not  with  China,  surrounded 
as  she  is  by  alien,  aggressive  civilisations.  The  revolutionary 
revolt  had  now  brought  to  an  acute  stage  her  foreign  questions, 
of  which  the  main  question  centred  about  money.  The  Re- 
public was  now  fighting  the  same  foreign  questions  as  was 
the  Empire.  The  republican  leaders  were  trying  to  minimise 
the  importance  of  China's  foreign  questions,  but  these  were 
her  whole  existence — a  fact  that  was  now  about  to  be  realised. 

The  state  of  China  has  hardly  been  realised  even  in  the 
West.  With  its  economic  system  on  a  plane  so  low  that  its 
masses  are  only  a  little  above  the  level  of  actual  subsistence, 
China  is  obliged  to  enact  her  part  in  the  world  upon  the  terms 
and  with  the  pace  set  for  her  by  the  nations  of  the  West 
whose  prosperity  and  wealth  have  reached  the  zenith  of  na- 
tional and  human  achievement.  As  the  forces  of  the  revolu- 
tionary Rebellion  were  gathering  the  conserving  power  of 
certain  principles  that  had  protected  Chinese  integrity  and  sov- 
ereignty by  equalising  the  interests  of  foreign  Powers  within 
her  borders,  was  disintegrating.  Equality  of  rights,  the  "Open 
Door,"  and  the  integrity  of  China's  sovereignty  and  territory 
were  being  defeated  in  this  by  the  special  interests  of  two 
Powers,  Japan  and  Russia.  The  United  States  of  America, 
which  had  waged  a  battle  in  behalf  of  peace  among  the  na- 
tions and  freedom  for  reorganisation  and  development  for 
China,  was  defeated  in  Manchuria  and  Mongolia.  The  dis- 
integration of  the  doctrines  to  which  she  secured  the  adherence 
of  the  Great  Powers  began  1903  with  the  signing  of  offensive 

286 


FINANCING   A    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

and  defensive  alliances  between  Japan  and  Great  Britain  and 
between  Russia  and  France.  The  ultimate  purpose  of  these 
doctrines  was  politically  defeated  by  the  results  of  the  Russo- 
Japanese  War  and  the  renewal  of  those  offensive  and  defen- 
sive alliances,  1905.  America  then  sought  to  attain  the  ends 
still  outwardly  championed  by  the  Powers,  by  means  of  finan- 
cial alliances  of  those  Powers  and  the  industrial  development 
of  China  for  the  advantage  of  all;  and  this  was  defeated  by 
conventional  terms  signed  between  Japan  and  Russia  making 
paramount  their  political  and  special  rights  over  their  equal 
industrial  and  commercial  rights. 

The  plan  championed  by  the  United  States  placed  the 
weight  of  influence  and  control  in  the  hands  of  the  capitalistic 
nations  of  Great  Britain,  France,  Germany,  and  the  United 
States,  leaving  the  non-capitalistic  but  military  Powers,  Russia 
and  Japan,  at  what  the  latter  took  to  be  a  political  disadvan- 
tage. Although  Russia  and  Japan  had  the  two  greatest  capi- 
talistic Powers,  France  and  Great  Britain,  as  their  allies,  they 
nevertheless  dissented  from  the  American  plan,  which  had 
now  been  carried  so  far  that  a  programme  for  financing  China 
and  bringing  about  her  industrial  regeneration  by  successive 
loans  to  her  in  large  sums  was  adopted  by  the  capitalistic 
Powers.  Seeing  that  the  success  of  this  scheme  would  be  a 
disadvantage  to  them  on  account  of  their  inability  to  partici- 
pate in  it  financially  in  such  a  way  as  to  have  a  controlling 
interest,  and  that  it  would  defeat  their  special  and  political 
rights,  Russia  and  Japan  dissented,  and  held  their  allies  to 
their  support  to  defeat  the  loan  programme. 

This  was  the  political  situation  of  China  at  the  beginning 
of  the  revolutionary  revolt.  Loans  to  China  approximating 
$300,000,000  were  involved  in  the  plans  of  the  capitalistic 
Powers.  When  the  revolt  came,  China  could  get  on  account 
from  all  sources  barely  $10,000,000,  and  soon  nothing.  The 
capitalistic  Powers  having  great  trade  interests  in  China  and 
holding  China's  bonds  for  past  loans,  would  not  subsidise  war 
and  rapine  there. 

Japan  being  the  victor  in  the  Russo-Japanese  War,  now 
pursuing  an  aggressive  expansion,  and  being  therefore  obliged 

287 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

to  keep  open  the  way  for  her  advance,  was  forced  to  secure 
an  understanding  with  Russia  on  the  new  basis  demanded  by 
the  policy  of  the  capitalistic  Powers.  Since  she  was  not  a 
capitalistic  Power  and  was  without  great  moneyed  influence, 
this  was  the  only  way  in  which  she  could  arrive  at  equality 
of  political  influence.  Having  reached  an  understanding  with 
Russia  and  secured  agreement  to  a  mutual  line  of  action,  ar- 
resting the  loan  project,  and  uniting  the  four  Powers  con- 
nected by  offensive  and  defensive  alliances,  namely  Russia  and 
France,  Great  Britain  and  herself,  Japan  held  in  her  hands 
the  key  to  China's  fate. 

These  facts  have  placed  Japan  in  the  position  to  play  both 
sides  in  China's  revolutionary  rebellion,  where,  posing  as  the 
"honest  broker,"  she  can  take  the  customary  commercial  profit 
sanctioned  by  business  morality  in  peace  and  war,  or,  under 
the  sunshine  of  business  bargaining,  make  political  hay.  It 
will  be  seen  how  terrible  to  Chinese  reformers  and  patriots 
must  be  this  prospect  from  a  powerful  and  to  them  aggressive 
and  irresistible  nation  like  Japan. 

The  terrible  leverage  of  Japan's  power,  fully  appreciated 
by  Japan  and  all  her  agents,  arises  from  two  causes :  first,  she 
has  united  the  four  Powers,  Russia  and  France,  Great  Britain 
and  herself,  in  the  maintenance  and  extension  of  her  political 
rights  in  Northern  China  and  the  arresting  of  the  financial 
projects  of  the  capitalistic  Powers  in  China ;  and  second,  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  cannot  borrow  money  because  the  capitalistic  Powers 
will  not  subsidise  war  on  behalf  of  a  doomed  Government,  and 
Sun  Yat-sen  cannot  borrow  money  because  the  Republic  of 
China  is  not  recognised  by  the  Powers.  The  bankers  will  not 
loan  to  a  Government  not  recognised  by  their  own.  The  re- 
sulting advantages  of  her  position  make  Japan  the  master  of 
a  helpless  country. 

It  is  necessary  to  keep  in  mind  these  facts  in  order  to 
understand  the  tremendous  burdens  resting  in  each  case  with 
peculiar  stress  and  travail  upon  the  shoulders  of  President 
Sun  Yat-sen  and  Premier  Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  The  Great  Pow- 
ers do  not  yet  know  what  the  outcome  will  be  of  a  situation 
in  which  they  see. many  tragic  possibilities,  but  they  feel,  per- 

288 


FINANCING   A    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

haps  without  exception,  that  the  future  is  more  clearly  seen 
by  Japan  than  by  any  other  Government.  One  thing  is  cer- 
tain, that  the  leaders  on  both  the  Imperialist  and  Republican 
sides  cannot  much  longer  endure  the  strain  of  this  ominous 
fear.  This  is  a  confessed  fact.  President  Sun  Yat-sen,  who 
was  accompanied  to  Nanking  by  a  group  of  Japanese  secre- 
taries and  advisers,  has  gracefully  dismissed  them.  Though 
befriended  by  Japan  and  the  Japanese  throughout  his  career, 
he  is  compelled  by  facts  and  circumstances  to  take  measures 
of  defence. 

******* 

It  is  the  boast  of  present-day  finance  that  war  and  peace 
are  in  its  hands  and  that  nations  now  settle  their  differences 
in  terms  of  dollars.  This  is  proving  true  in  the  internal  dif- 
ferences of  China,  but  only  indirectly.  Financial  considera- 
tions are  now  dissolving  into  the  greater  considerations  of  the 
safety  of  the  nation.  President  Sun  Yat-sen  and  the  Re- 
publican Government  fear  Japanese  influence  and  assurances 
of  its  support  at  Peking.  Premier  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  whose 
whole  career  has  been  that  of  an  opponent  of  Japan,  fears 
Japanese  power  in  the  Republic. 

It  is  by  finance  and  money  interests  under  the  name  of 
trade,  that  foreign  Powers  have  gotten  their  ineradicable  grasp 
upon  China,  and  the  time  has  now  arrived  in  the  affairs  of 
the  Empire  and  of  the  Republic  when  the  situation  is  being 
taken  advantage  of  by  outsiders.  The  two  sides  are  both  so 
identified  and  opposed  that  one  can  be  played  against  the 
other.  Observers  of  the  West  who  quarrel  with  the  slothful 
stride  which  progress  takes  in  China,  and  the  apparent  per- 
versity of  nations  there,  may  explain  by  the  formula  of  this 
immemorial  game  in  Asia  and  Eastern  Asia  the  crisis  at  which 
the  Republic  and  Empire  have  now  arrived. 

As  I  recapitulate  those  events  at  Peking  coincident  with 
and  immediately  preceding  what  is  now  going  on  at  Nanking, 
I  recall  that  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  assassinate  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai,  the  arch-opponent  of  Japan  and  recognised  by 
Japan  as  such,  and  also  in  the  minds  of  many  Manchus  a 
doubtful  friend  of  the  Dynasty.  The  origin  and  motive  of  the 

289 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

attempted  assassination  are  a  secret  mystery.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
and  Prince  Ching  are  clear  respecting  the  situation,  while  the 
subordinate  princes  and  other  dissenters  to  abdication  threaten 
to  seek  Japanese  aid.  The  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  is 
partially  persuaded  in  the  absence  of  Prince  Ching,  head  of 
the  Imperial  Clan,  and  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  who  have  withdrawn 
from  the  Imperial  councils  to  allow  the  hysteria  of  dissension 
to  subside.  Following  this,  the  mind  of  the  Lung  Yu  Empress 
Dowager  becomes  more  clear,  and  she  signifies  her  confidence 
in  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  by  giving  him  the  title  of  Marquis.  Never- 
theless, it  is  an  act  of  panic  in  which  she  rushes  from  the 
shadow  of  the  outsider  to  her  Minister  for  safety,  and  seeks 
to  further  bind  the  latter  to  her  defence.  Under  the  anarchis- 
tic conditions  existing,  with  .bombs  whose  origin  no  man  can 
determine,  all  around  him,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  naturally  shuns  this 
spot-light  attention.  He  recoils  from  an  honour  that  is  thus 
so  obviously  thrust  in  the  face  of  Japan. 

One  of  the  things  most  emphasised  during  the  revolu- 
tionary rebellion  is  the  benefits  obtained  by  the  outsider 
through  China's  past  internal  quarrels,  particularly  from  the 
hour  of  the  filching  of  the  Throne  by  the  Manchu  outsider, 
1644,  down  through  all  her  costly  foreign  intercourse.  Pas- 
sions of  nations  are  like  the  passions  of  individuals.  Inter- 
national quarrels  work  themselves  out  along  the  same  lines  as 
the  quarrels  of  individuals,  and  in  the  quarrels  of  individuals 
the  outsider  profits.  Thus  all  these  acts  at  Peking  are  so 
human  in  their  motives  of  pride,  cupidity,  possession,  and  fear 
as  to  escape  foreign  observers  there,  who  are  too  close  to 
events  to  realise  their  significance,  and  here  is  the  complex 
situation  which  they  have  said  is  impossible  of  elucidation. 
They  are  still  asking  whether  or  not  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  a 
friend  or  traitor  to  the  Dynasty,  whether  he  is  a  patriot  or  a 
conspirator,  seeking  the  Throne  for  himself.  Coincidentally 
they  suspect  Sun  Yat-sen  of  being  a  political  mountebank  and 
adventurer.  But  under  all  that  now  harasses  them  from 
within  and  without,  the  Premier  at  Peking  and  the  President 
at  Nanking,  are  the  wheels  and  cranks  of  perfectly  simple 
forces  working  out  the  question  of  the  unification  of  the  coun- 

290 


FINANCING   A    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

try  which  both  reiterate  to  be  their  aim.  China's  old  enemy 
the  outsider,  whose  shadow  had  crossed  Peking,  has  now  come 
to  Nanking.  That  enemy  is  about  to  furnish  a  spectacular 
solution  of  China's  difficulty,  which  from  this  moment  further 
mystifies  the  Powers  and  the  world,  and  again  shows  the 
position  of  Japan. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 
OLD  REVOLUTIONARY  FRIENDS 

FINANCE  is  but  one  of  the  many  questions  of  the  Re- 
public now  embraced  in  the  one  word  "Nanking" — 
questions  arising  from  the  aim  of  the  President,  "to 
secure  peace,  stable  government,  and  contentment  for  the  mil- 
lions of  his  fellow-countrymen." 

Nanking  witnessed  here  the  declarations  of  other  new 
Governments  that  had  come  and  gone.  The  "Illustrious"  or 
Ming  Dynasty  had  its  birth  here  1368  A.D.,  fulfilled  the  prom- 
ise of  its  name,  and  met  a  wretched  and  inglorious  end.  Here 
was  the  Capital  of  the  "Heavenly  King"  and  the  T'aiping  cru- 
sader-Empire (1853-1865).  And  linked  with  these  events  for 
ever  was  to  be  the  launching  of  the  "Flowery  Republic." 

All  its  traditions  are  literary,  and  not  martial.  "The  Seven 
Idlers  of  the  Bamboo  Grove"  of  antiquity,  China's  most  fam- 
ous literary  circle,  might  here  have  had  their  rendezvous  in  a 
hundred  flowery  fields  and  gardens.  Inviting  pathways 
through  scintillating  bamboo  groves  entice  the  wayfarer  from 
a  hundred  streets,  to  shadowy  lakes  flecked  with  waterfowl. 

It  has  been  her  Confucian  scholars  meditating  in  her 
groves,  and  not  her  soldiers  in  her  barracks,  that  have  formed 
the  traditions  of  Nanking ;  her  pagoda-crowned  hill  Pei-chi-ko, 
and  not  her  Drum  Tower.  It  has  been  her  porcelain  sentinel 
at  the  South  Gate,  and  not  her  Lion  Hill  fort  at  the  North, 
that  has  been  her  landmark  and  has  pointed  her  out  to  nations 
and  won  the  love  of  alien  poets. 

"...    yonder  by  Nanking,  behold 
The  Tower  of  Porcelain,  strange  and  old, 
Uplifting  to  the  astonished  skies 
Its  ninefold  painted  balconies, 
With  balustrades  of  twining  leaves, 
And  roofs  of  tile  beneath  whose  eaves 
292 


OLD    REVOLUTIONARY    FRIENDS 

Hang  porcelain  bells  that  all  the  time 
Ring  with  a  soft  melodious  chime; 
While  the  whole  fabric  is  ablaze 
With  varied  tints  all  fused  in  one 
Great  mass  of  colour,  like  a  maze 
Of   flowers    illumined    by   the   sun."1 

The  contrast  between  gardens  and  literature,  and  war  and 
money,  came  home  to  me  in  those  surroundings  which  for 
ten  years  I  had  looked  forward  to  visiting  for  sentimental 
reasons.  Nanking  was  the  native  place  of  His  Excellency 
Huang  Sze-yung,  a  man  whom  I  have  called  my  Chinese 
father,  who  has  been  my  affectionate  benefactor.  As  a  boy 
of  about  twelve,  with  his  brother,  he  here  hanged  himself  to 
escape  massacre  by  the  T'aiping  rebels.  The  rebels  cut  both 
down,  but  his  brother  was  dead.  Little  Sze-yung  was  revived 
by  kindly  soldiers  and  kept  captive.  Later  as  a  Confucian 
student  he  walked  these  fields  and  gardens  until  called  to 
Peking.  There  the  Emperor  in  recognition  of  his  scholarship 
gave  him  a  house  and  opened  the  Chien  Men  to  receive  and 
escort  the  gentle  scholar  thither. 

Huang  Sze-yung  became  a  public  benefactor  and  worked 
for  progress.  As  a  member  of  his  household  I  had  often  lis- 
tened to  the  reminiscences  of  this  marvellous  romance.  Nan- 
king was  its  setting.  Since  the  days  of  his  captivity  and  of 
the  expulsion  of  the  T'aipings,  Nanking  had  been  undisturbed 
by  war-drums  and  bugles.  My  visit  was  something  of  a  pil- 
grimage to  His  Excellency  Huang's  early  shrines. 

Now  again  the  waterfowl  lazily  paddling  under  the  silky 
rustle  of  the  bamboo  leaves  start  in  fright  at  the  martial  call. 
It  is  that  of  the  Republic,  and  the  scholar  in  the  garden  gives 
place  to  the  soldier,  conspirator,  and  statesman. 

Early  in  February  I  reached  this  Capital  at  a  spot  made 
famous  by  its  surrender  to  General  Hsu  Shao-cheng,  and  the 
escape  of  General  Chang  Hsun.  I  stepped  from  the  train  at 
Hsiakuan  where  first  stopped  President-elect  Sun  Yat-sen  en 
route  to  his  inauguration.  It  was  of  additional  interest  to  me 

1  Longfellow's  Keramos. 
293 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

to  have  arrived  in  company  with  Dr.  Tenney,  the  Envoy  of 
the  American  State  Department,  and  of  the  correspondent  Mr. 
Kennedy,  who  had  seen  so  much  of  the  important  events 
here. 

Night  falls  before  we  settle  in  our  hotel,  Mr.  Martin's 
Bridge  House,  and  the  streets  and  foreshore  of  the  Yangtse 
are  lighted  up  by  hurrying  lanterns,  while  in  the  river  are  the 
lights  of  merchant  steamers  and  foreign  warships.  The 
Bridge  House  is  one  of  the  now  historic  structures  of  Nan- 
king, rich  with  Revolutionist  associations,  the  rendezvous  of 
all  the  conspirators  of  the  Yangtse  Valley.  We  do  not  stop 
for  dinner,  but  go  to  the  flagship  Rainbow  to  dine  with  the 
American  Admiral  Murdock. 

The  officers  of  the  flagship  tell  stories  of  their  experiences 
on  the  Yangtse  as  spectators  of  Revolutionist  warfare,  and 
in  peaceful  intervals,  as  sportsmen  among  the  waterfowl,  fur- 
nishing delicious  duck  for  their  guests.  The  foreign  naval 
commanders  are  observing  the  baptism  of  the  Republic.  They 
may  not  pay  official  calls  on  the  President  and  Ministers  be- 
cause their  Governments  have  not  recognised  the  Republic. 
They  have  to  devise  unofficial  meetings  by  which  they  keep  in 
touch  with  all  that  the  Republic  is  doing  and  report  to  their 
Governments. 

Leaving  Hsiakuan,  the  north  suburb  of  Nanking,  I  follow 
the  one  long  road  or  Great  Street,  leading  through  the  North 
Gate,  nearly  five  miles  to  the  Viceroy's  yamen.  All  the  grist 
of  Nanking's  daily  mill  passes  through  it.  This  is  the  place 
to  see  Nanking — the  Republic  on  parade.  Here  passes  every 
moving  thing  from  the  republican  pack-mule  to  the  Minister 
of  War's  carriage  and  the  Provisional  President's  automobile, 
from  the  revolutionary  recruit  to  the  foreign  envoy.  Thread- 
ing its  way  among  squads  of  incoming  volunteers,  native  chairs 
and  wheel-barrows,  horsemen,  infantry,  transport  trains,  car- 
riers and  foot-passengers,  in  this  thoroughfare,  came  that 
crowd  which  thronged  the  courts  and  the  side  streets  at  Presi- 
dent Sun  Yat-sen's  inauguration. 

The  cutting  of  the  queue  has  of  itself  made  one  of  those 
"New  Chinas"  common  to  Western  thought.  Without  queues 

294 


OLD    REVOLUTIONARY    FRIENDS 

the  coolies  in  the  road  look  like  the  Indians  of  Arizona  and 
New  Mexico. 

"What  a  chance  for  the  Japanese  haberdasher!"  says  my 
Swiss  companion.  "All  these  new  hats  and  other  Western 
clothes  the  rffew  Chinese  are  wearing  come  from  Japan." 

All  now  observe  the  Sabbath  Day  just  as  did  the  "Heavenly 
King"  and  his  T'aipings  half  a  century  before.  All  use  rick- 
i  shaws  and  have  one  or  another  of  foreign  handkerchiefs,  hats, 
socks,  shoes,  shirts,  and  even  complete  suits.  We  meet  Chi- 
nese officers  in  open  broughams  with  their  luggage  piled  all 
about  them  en  route  to  Pukow  and  the  front  beyond  the 
famine  region  district  in  Anhuei.  There  are  some  members 
of  a  "bomb  company,"  with  black  trousers  and  yellow  stripes, 
and  with  bright  red  coats.  They  are  as  lively  as  a  drum  corps 
and  as  dashing  as  zouaves.  A  flag  announces  in  glaring  let- 
ters their  object  and  importance. 

Soldiers  are  hauling  a  Decauville  railway  truck  bound  for 
the  barges  that  connect  with  the  railway  to  the  front.  They 
pull  at  the  ends  of  long  ropes,  moving  slowly  over  the  metalled 
road  built  for  them  by  the  Manchu  Viceroy  Tuan  Fang. 
Others  draw  artillery  trucks  and  ammunition  limbers.  The 
army  seems  to  have  no  horses  except  the  shaggy  ponies  which 
carry  the  officers  and  a  few  orderlies  up  and  down.  One 
wonders  where  are  the  guns  of  these  trucks  and  limbers. 
The  foreign  correspondents  have  now  begun  to  settle  in  force 
in  Nanking  together  with  concessionnaires  and  foreign  agents 
of  all  kinds.  They  go  by  in  the  best  hired  carriages  on  the 
way  to  the  President's  house,  where  I  am  going. 

On  this  five-mile  Great  Street  are  all  the  Foreign  Con- 
sulates, now  open.  To  the  right  and  behind  them  are  barracks 
and  parade-grounds  where  the  recruits  are  drilling.  Recruits 
appear  from  the  side  streets.  One  whole  company,  composed 
apparently  of  outcasts  and  beggars,  turns  in  game-leggedly 
ahead  of  me.  On  the  left  is  the  house  of  General  Homer  Lea, 
a  foreign  two-story  brick  building  with  wide  porticoes.  In 
the  next  compound  is  a  bungalow  which  is  the  meeting  place 
of  the  "Republican  Senate."  Farther  east  are  the  Exposition 
buildings,  also  built  by  Tuan  Fang,  where  the  Republican  As- 

295 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

sembly  is  sitting,  and  the  dismantled  wireless  station  and  the 
parade-ground  where  Wilcox,  the  American  mechanic,  has  an 
aeroplane  school  and  where  ardent  Chinese  aeroplanists  are 
going  smash.  On  the  right,  again,  are  modern  residence 
buildings  that  are  being  prepared  for  the  new  Foreign  Office 
of  the  Republic.  The  Great  Street  leaves  the  fields,  hamlets, 
and  villages  at  the  rusty  old  Drum  Tower  covered  with  Jap- 
anese advertising,  turns  to  the  left,  and  finally  enters  the 
Chinese  city  proper.  The  Missions  with  their  modern  church 
and  school  buildings,  in  great  contrast  to  all  around  them,  lie 
on  the  right. 

I  am  now  in  the  region  of  the  southern  wall  of  this  vast 
23-mile  enclosure  known  as  Nanking.  The  southern  part  is 
nearly  all  given  over  to  troops  who  are  seen  drilling  in  every 
stable-yard,  and  doing  practice  marches  through  the  streets. 
I  meet  a  military  officer  not  of  high  rank  in  a  carriage  es- 
corted by  twenty-five  men.  Two  of  them  are  on  horseback, 
riding  ahead.  Two  are  sitting  as  footmen  behind  the  carriage, 
ten  follow  in  rickshaws,  and  eleven  are  on  foot — thus  a  rather 
small-rank  military  officer  of  the  Republic.  Imagine  a  West- 
ern officer  of  the  rank  of  Captain  so  escorted ! 

On  the  east  of  this  region  is  the  Manchu  or  Tartar  City 
where  occurred  the  accidental  explosion  that  brought  on  its 
destruction.  There  is  positively  nothing  that  cannot  be  called 
dust  left  of  it.  The  Revolutionists  sacked  and  burned  it.  It 
is  the  most  complete  work  of  looting  I  have  seen  in  all  China 
— more  complete  than  if  the  entire  Tartar  City  had  passed 
through  a  giant  crematory.  It  is  indeed  dust  to  dust.  It 
has  an  apparent  antiquity  of  a  thousand  years  as  it  lies  treeless 
and  shelterless,  in  the  pitiless  sun.  Faggot-gatherers  hacked 
at  first  the  branches,  then  hewed  down  the  trunks  of  its  wil- 
lows to  the  stumps,  chipped  the  stumps  to  the  earth  itself,  and 
then  dug  up  the  roots.  As  I  came  back  I  saw  at  the  entrance 
to  the  Chinese  town  the  people  in  their  doorways  beating  the 
bark  from  these  green  roots  and  branches  and  toasting  the 
fragments  to  make  them  dry  for  burning. 

A  little  farther  on  lies  the  Chinese  "White  House,"  the 
converted  Viceroy's  yamen,  where  for  a  little  over  five  weeks 

296 


OLD    REVOLUTIONARY    FRIENDS 

Sun  Yat-sen  has  been  President  of  the  "Flowery  Republic." 
The  "White  House"  guard  drilling  on  the  parade-ground  a 
few  hundred  yards  distant,  marches  in  through  the  p'ailow  and 
gateway  to  its  quarters  inside  the  second  court.  Long  lines 
of  flags  flutter  from  the  p'ailows.  The  evergreens  and  orna- 
mental lights  are  absent.  The  guard  admits  me  on  a  pass 
through  the  right  of  three  gate-house  doors,  and  I  enter  the 
court  of  the  guard  headquarters.  All  the  wooden  parts  of  the 
yamen  ordinarily  encrusted  with  red  paint  are  painted  white, 
the  colour  of  the  Republic.  Over  the  main  entrance  hangs 
the  five-coloured  national  standard.  It  is  the  same  in  all  the 
gate-houses  and  buildings ;  white  everywhere,  significant  of 
the  regeneration.  The  Republic  is  making  an  example  and 
illustration  to  the  people. 

I  am  about  -to  see  that  Government — characterised  in 
their  minds  by  automobiles  and  frock-coats — which  critics 
loudly  disclaimed  as  alien  to  the  country,  and  an  extravagance 
more  alien  than  the  extravagances  of  the  French  aristocracy. 
The  doorkeepers  lead  me  into  an  office  in  the  main  gate-house 
where  my  name,  address,  and  occupation  are  registered  and 
from  which  my  card  is  taken  to  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs, after  which  I  am  led  through  two  additional  courts  to 
the  audience  or  reception  hall,  where  are  other  callers.  I 
wait  several  minutes  here,  sipping  tea  and  mentally  taking  in 
the  alterations  which  make  it  as  a  Chinese  yamen  look  so 
strange.  There  is  not  enough  of  colour  in  the  walls  and  col- 
onnades to  leave  me  an  impression  of  anything  but  white. 
The  only  thing  which  makes  Nanking  seem  a  part  of  China 
is  the  winds,  which  here  still  sweep  between  the  lintels  and 
the  pavement,  and  among  the  old  rafters,  without  knowing 
their  own. 

This  strange  old  place,  which  I  have  never  before  seen, 
holds  some  surprises  for  me.  When  I  enter  the  office  of  the 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  I  am  received  by  C.  C.  Wang, 
who  grew  up  in  Peking,  under  the  tutelage  of  the  American 
Minister,  Mr.  Conger,  and  there  prepared  himself  for  his  col- 
lege career  in  America.  He  is  now  the  Secretary  of  the 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  in  Nanking.  I  knew  him  during 

297 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

that  period  in  Peking,  and  while  he  was  getting  his  first  ideas 
of  my  Republic  I  was  getting  ideas  of  his  country.  He  was 
then  a  blue-gowned,  sandal-footed  Chinese  clerk,  with  a  queue 
and  a  cap.  Now  he  is  one  of  the  ''frock-coated,  silk-hatted" 
young  Republicans  that  make  the  Government  at  Nanking  the 
exotic  of  the  critics.  He  has  all  the  hopefulness  and  cheer 
that  is  known  in  America  as  "the  college  spirit,"  with  an  in- 
tense admiration  for  the  leaders,  and  a  great  confidence  in 
the  Revolution.  If  I  were  asked  for  a  definition  of  the  Re- 
public of  China  I  do  not  know  that  I  could  do  better  than  in- 
stance Mr.  Wang,  to  whom  new  worlds  have  been  opened  by 
his  foreign  friends,  and  whose  light  and  spirit  he  has  brought 
home. 

The  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  Mr.  Wang  Ch'ung-huei, 
is  also  dressed  in  a  frock-coat.  He  is  a  tall  and  slender  man, 
with  a  scholarly  stoop,  and  more  in  harmony  with  the  Nanking 
type  and  Nanking's  literary  traditions.  His  qualifications  for 
the  position  he  holds  come  from  his  knowledge  of  foreign 
law.  He  is  the  author,  among  other  works,  of  an  authoritative 
translation  of  the  German  Penal  Code  into  English.  I  was 
astonished  at  the  man.  All  foreigners  are.  It  is  impossible 
for  the  observer  to  conceive  one  so  ably  qualified  in  languages 
not  his  own,  and  in  sciences  unknown  in  China. 

Without  recognition  by  the  Powers  the  "Flowery  Republic" 
has  no  official  foreign  affairs,  and  the  Foreign  Minister  is 
chiefly  engaged  in  advising  the  leaders  of  the  revolution  in 
matters  that  will  avoid  foreign  complications,  making  explana- 
tions in  unofficial  conferences  with  foreign  consuls,  and  in 
devising  means  to  gain  for  the  Republic  the  recognition  from 
the  Powers  which  it  craves. 

"Oh,  Mr.  McCormick,"  says  a  familiar  voice.  A  hand  is 
laid  on  my  shoulder  to  stop  me,  and  I  look  into  the  face  of 
the  son  of  my  old  benefactor  Hwang  Sze-yung.  Mr.  Wang 
and  I  are  lost  in  reminiscences  of  Peking,  and  in  discussions 
of  the  Republic,  when  I  am  startled  by  this  presence  of  my 
old  Peking  companion,  who  is  just  coming  from  the  Presi- 
dent's house.  Unlike  the  members  of  the  "White  House" 
Government,  he  is  dressed  in  the  garb  of  literary  Nanking — 

298 


OLD    REVOLUTIONARY    FRIENDS 

of  his  fathers.  He  is  the  favourite  son,  has  inherited  his  fa- 
ther's literary  talent,  ability,  and  thought,  and  it  is  fitting  I 
should  find  him  coming  through  the  pavilion  overlooking  the 
wistaria  arbour  in  the  garden — the  least  changed  of  all  the 
courts  of  the  viceregal  yamen.  He  is  in  the  home  of  his  an- 
cestors. But  notwithstanding  his  reverential  conservatism  and 
dress,  he  is  a  reformer  and  the  secretary  of  -one  of  the  princi- 
pal Republican  generals. 

We  had  parted  two  years  before  at  Peking,  after  others 
of  a  company  of  young  reformers  with  whom  I  had  lived 
there  had  been  dispersed,  some  exiled — forced  to  seek  refuge 
in  foreign  settlements  because  of  their  liberal  views  and  reform 
activities — and  all  launched  on  the  strange  pathways  that  sep- 
arate men  in  times  such  as  the  reform  movement  brought 
upon  China. 

We  had  known  each  other  in  Peking  when  the  Republic 
was  a  beautiful  dream — when  we  sat  over  our  wine-cups  in 
winter  and  over  our  tea  in  the  moonlight  courts  in  summer 
and  they  had  listened  to  my  stories  of  my  Republic.  As  they 
plied  question  upon  question  in  the  atmosphere  of  steaming 
dishes,  lighted  candles,  and  mellow  lanterns — a  hundred  scenes 
like  Dore's  etchings — one  vague  shadowy  name  recurred  that 
floated  like  a  wraith.  It  was  the  name  of  Sun  Yat-sen,  Revo- 
lutionist. 

Separated  by  the  gathering  reform  upheaval  at  Peking  in 
years  past,  we  were  now,  as  we  stood  in  the  Nanking  garden, 
not  unlike  those  characters  in  Dickens's  "Tale  of  Two  Cities" 
— in  that  we  were  "children  of  the  Universal  Mother,  else  so 
wide  apart  and  differing,"  meeting  leagues  upon  leagues  dis- 
tant, still  held  in  the  web  of  those  dreams  of  Peking  days. 

And  Sun  Yat-sen,  President  of  the  Republic,  is  in  the  next 
court  and  is  waiting  for  me. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 
MY  INTERVIEW  WITH  SUN  YAT-SEN 

THE  President's  time  at  this  moment  is  too  valuable  to 
talk  over  future  problems,  and  the  question  of  the 
hour,  foreign  affairs,  is  too  serious  for  delay.  The 
reformers  in  planning  their  Republic  looked  for  and  expected 
to  receive  their  recognition  and  support  from  America.  Fi- 
nance, recognition  of  the  Republic  by  the  Powers,  and  the 
peculiarly  menacing  position  into  which  Japan  has  elevated 
herself,  make  all  questions  of  the  reformation  in  China  begin 
and  end  in  that  word  expressive  of  mastery  in  reform, 
"Japan." 

"For  eleven  years  now  I  have  been  intensely  interested 
in  all  your  problems,"  said  I  to  President  Sun  Yat-sen.  "You 
and  those  who  have  aided  you  have  accomplished  the  thing  in 
the  world  that  was  the  most  needful  to  accomplish — sweep 
away  Manchu  rule  here.  It  was  the  thing  in  all  the  world 
next  to  be  done. 

"Now  you  want  to  know  what  is  thought  of  your  great 
problem — that  of  eliminating  the  Manchus  and  establishing 
yourselves  among  the  nations.  The  Manchu  rulers  have  no 
friends  abroad,  and  it  is  not  on  their  account  that  the  Powers 
do  not  recognise  the  Republic.  As  for  our  Government,  it 
may  be  the  last  to  recognise  you.  Its  policy  is  to  act  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  exercise  the  greatest  influence  with  the  Powers 
in  China's  behalf.  In  the  case  of  the  latest  new  republic, 
Portugal,  it  was  the  last  to  give  recognition." 

"But  it  recognised  Panama  in  three  days,"  said  President 
Sun. 

"China,  however,  unlike  Panama,  is  the  prey  of  foreign 
nations  and  is  shackled  with  foreign  complications.  Prema- 
ture action  by  the  United  States  is  likely  to  increase  your 
complications.  Our  Government  is  proud  of  its  position,  but 

300 


MY    INTERVIEW   WITH    SUN    YAT-SEN 

has  difficulties.  Our  people  know  little  of  China.  They  too 
are  proud  of  our  position  and  doctrine  out  here,  but  even  so 
the  Government  in  its  position  is  ahead  of  the  people.  It 
cannot  go  much  farther  than  it  has  gone  without  risking  its 
influence  at  home,  to  say  nothing  of  its  influence  with  other 
nations.  All  are  friendly  to  you,  certainly  all  the  English- 
speaking  peoples,  and  at  the  same  time,  as  you  know,  too,  all 
are  anxious  for  the  Republic  to  prove  its  stability." 

"But  we  are  outlawed.  Here  are  360,000,000  people.  We 
have  authority  in  15  provinces — to  the  frontiers  of  Burma. 
We  have  a  Government,  but  we  are  outlawed.  We  cannot 
continue  this  way.  Already  the  people  are  pressing  us.  They 
do  not  understand  why  the  Powers  do  not  recognise  us.  They 
do  not  understand  our  foreign  questions.  You  know  that  there 
is  everywhere  an  anti-foreign  feeling.  It  might  rise  up.  We 
could  not  resist  it — we  cannot  answer  those  Chinese  who  press 
us.  Everybody  is  friendly — all  Europeans  are  friends — we 
have  friends  everywhere.  But  we  need  recognition.  You 
ought  to  recognise  us." 

"If  China  can  demonstrate  her  ability  to  govern  herself," 
said  I,  "and  protect  foreign  interests  by  settling  her  internal 
differences,  there  would  be  no  trouble  about  recognition.  Un- 
der present  circumstances  it  would  be  taking  sides  to  recognise 
the  Republic  and  loan  it  money,  or  to  loan  money  to  the  Pe- 
king Government.  On  the  other  hand,  if  you  would  divide 
the  country  by  agreement  with  the  North,  each  side  setting 
up  a  separate  Government,  you  would  be  recognised." 

"No,  that  will  not  do.  The  country  is  united  in  senti- 
ment. All  are  against  the  Manchus  and  are  on  our  side. 
There  is  no  Government  in  Peking." 

While  we  are  talking  at  the  President's  house  the  Minister 
of  Foreign  Affairs,  Wang  Ch'ung-huei,  and  Dr.  Tenney,  the 
American  Envoy,  are  discussing  elsewhere  the  same  questions 
of  the  recognition  of  the  Republic  and  China's  international 
position. 

The  two  things  which  the  President  seems  most  worried 
about  are  Japan,  and  the  possibility  of  the  Chinese  people 
withdrawing  their  support  from  the  Nanking  Government. 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

The  abdication  edict  is  written,  and  only  the  manner  in  which 
the  two  sections  of  the  country,  North  and  South,  are  to  be 
united,  delays  its  issue.  The  Republic  will  miss  its  aim  if 
it  turns  itself  over  to  the  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  who  favours  a  mon- 
archy and  has  pledged  himself  to  the  Throne.  If  it  can  turn 
over  to  a  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  that  is  the  defender  of  the  "Flowery 
Republic,"  it  can  accomplish  its  object. 

"What  is  your  judgment  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai?"  asks  the 
President.  "On  what  considerations  is  he  acting?" 

"I  have  known  him  for  some  years  and  my  impressions 
of  him  have  been  very  favourable,  as  have  been  those  of  many 
others.  He  is  an  able  man,  and  ever  since  he  became  Gov- 
ernor of  Shantung  and  Viceroy  of  Chihli  my  observation  has 
been  that  he  has  acted  in  the  best  interests  of  the  country,  and 
it  is  certainly  true  that  he  has  been  a  martyr  to  his  convictions 
of  reform." 

"Do  you  think  he  is  acting  now  in  the  interests  of  reform 
or  the  Dynasty  ?" 

"He  is  obliged  to  make  the  best  bargain  he  can  for  the 
Court,  but  his  real  interests  must  be  those  of  the  Empire — 
that  is,  the  country  itself,  and  not  of  any  individuals.  I  do 
not  believe  it  possible  that  he  could  be  acting  merely  in  his 
own  interests." 

"If  I  could  be  sure  of  this,  I  would  be  relieved  of  much 
anxiety." 

Secretaries  and  Ministers  are  pressing  upon  the  President's 
time  and  the  interview,  which  has  lasted  nearly  an  hour,  is 
over.  The  President  has  to  retire  to  consult  with  the  head 
of  the  Republican  Assembly. 

On  going  in  for  my  interview  I  observed  that  President 
Sun  Yat-sen  lived  in  a  separate  court  from  the  yamen  proper, 
in  a  foreign-style  house  built  by  Tuan  Fang,  now  the  headless, 
and  occupied  later  by  Viceroy  Chang  Jen-chUn,  now  the  refu- 
gee. The  old  Chinese  garden  by  which  I  approached  this 
court  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful  I  had  seen,  with  a  pa- 
vilion set  in  a  tiny  lake  and  reached  by  corridors  like  the 
"stately  Pleasure  Dome,"  decreed  by  Kublai  Khan.  I  was 
escorted  by  an  unarmed  soldier  wearing  a  white  badge  on  his 

302 


MY    INTERVIEW   WITH   SUN    YAT-SEN 

coat.  I  went  into  the  room  to  the  left  of  the  main  entrance 
hall.  There  was  no  one  at  the  portico  or  hall  door  to  receive 
me.  The  soldier  knocked  on  the  door  to  the  right  before 
anyone  appeared.  I  was  astonished  at  finding  no  guards  out- 
side, no  door-keeper,  and  no  usher. 

It  was  about  two  minutes  before  the  President  came  in, 
attended  by  a  secretary  and  an  aide.  We  shook  hands,  he 
dismissed  his  attendants,  and  we  sat  down  alone  at  the  round 
table  before  the  grate  (in  which,  by  the  way,  the  fire  had 
gone  out).  It  was  rather  cold  in  the  room  and  I  kept  my 
overcoat  on.  The  President  wa§  dressed  in  a  military  suit  of 
winter  khaki  such  as  the  Japanese  officers  of  the  army  wear. 
It  was  of  military  cut,  without  insignia.  He  was  a  little  diffi- 
dent, I  thought  because  of  his  mixture  of  native  reserve  and 
foreign  training.  He  smiled  boyishly  and  somewhat  sadly. 
He  is  forty-seven.  He  looked  about  that  age,  and  I  have 
been  wondering  how  much  or  how  little  he  may  resemble  in 
appearance,  or  possess  the  qualities  of,  the  "Heavenly  Prince," 
or  the  founder  of  the  Ming  Dynasty  and  whatever  other  re- 
formers and  invaders  in  Eastern  Asia  have  worked  wonders 
such  as  he  has  worked.  A  half-foolish,  half-sad  smile  played 
around  his  mouth — he  seemed  more  like  a  Siamese  or  Bur- 
mese than  Chinese — and  his  small  stature  added  nothing  of 
impressiveness  to  him.  It  was  somewhat  strange — half  disap- 
pointing, half  wonderful.  Here  was  the  man  who  it  appeared 
had  done  the  one  thing  in  all  the  world  most  needful.  Every- 
thing about  him  was  simple,  and  his  manners  took  me  off 
guard — he  was  most  like  a  simple  boy.  He  seemed  to  be 
dreaming  of  some  yet  greater  event,  perhaps  a  yet  greater 
fate  which  he  saw  dimly  and  was  trying  to  make  out.  It 
was  as  though  he  felt  a  martyrdom  of  which  he  was  not  fully 
conscious  to  be  hanging  over  him.  I  did  not  wish  to  leave 
him.  There  was  no  doubt  of  his  magnetism,  often  proved  by 
the  fact  that  when  he  was  farthest  away  his  followers  were 
most  loyal  to  him. 

Although  he  had  been  thinking  of  political  questions  so 
long,  he  was  not  calloused  to  other  Chinese  interests,  and 
we  found  time  to  talk  of  at  least  one  other  subject  than  that 

303 


of  the  fate  of  the  Republic.  He  asked  me  about  China's  great 
monuments  and  my  work  of  organising  a  China  Monuments' 
Society  interested  in  this  subject.  He  asked  me  how  many 
members  the  Society  had.  I  told  him  about  two  hundred  and 
gave  him  some  of  their  names,  by  which  to  judge.  I  told 
him  of  the  interest  among  scholars  respecting  China's  ancient 
things,  and  that  a  large  and  influential  class  of  men  in  the 
world  gained  their  high  feelings  of  respect  and  admiration 
for  the  Chinese  from  a  knowledge  of  these  things.  A  contin- 
uation of  this  admiration,  I  took  occasion  to  say,  would  de- 
pend upon  the  continued  respect  which  the  Chinese  people 
exhibited  for  their  own  antiquities.  Unfortunately,  the  Chi- 
nese troops  had  selected  monuments  in  China  for  their  artil- 
lery targets,  which  was  as  bad  as  foreign  vandalism  in  China. 
In  1843  or  thereabouts  the  English  had  destroyed  the  Porce- 
lain Pagoda  in  Nanking,  a  most  unexplainable  act,  hard  to 
understand.  Now  the  China  Monuments'  Society  had  secured 
the  aid  of  foreign  Governments,  some  of  which  kept  their 
military  departments  warned  against  the  recurrence  of  such 
acts.  At  present  we  were  especially  interested,  owing  to  the 
conditions  of  the  times  when  foreign  Powers  were  landing 
troops  in  China,  that  no  acts  of  foreign  vandalism  should 
occur.  Such  care  would  be  all  the  more  effective  if  the  Chinese 
manifested  a  similar  spirit. 

For  interest  and  importance  my  visit  to  Nanking  could 
not  have  been  better  timed.  The  abdication  at  Peking  is 
about  to  take  place,  and  this  is  the  crisis  in  the  life  and  ex- 
istence of  the  Republican  Government  at  Nanking  and  of  the 
aims  of  the  conspirator  and  reformer  Sun  Yat-sen.  This  man 
is  about  to  surrender  the  place  of  Provisional  President  to 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  by  a  course  of  reasoning  which  events  will 
show  to  be  of  the  most  trying  character  to  the  strongest  man, 
and  after  a  chain  of  circumstances  to  be  henceforth  memorable 
in  the  world's  history.  Those  circumstances  or  events,  for 
this  man,  began  with  the  opening  of  the  Republic  at  Wuchang 
and  led  up  to  the  Presidency. 

I  was  in  the  United  States  coincident  with  Sun  Yat-sen's 
tour  across  the  American  continent  and  had  much  interest  in 

304 


MY    INTERVIEW   WITH    SUN    YAT-SEN 

his  movements  because  of  the  rapid  development  of  the  re- 
form rebellion.  He  visited  in  order  the  following  cities :  San 
Francisco,  Seattle,  Portland,  Spokane,  Denver,  Kansas  City, 
St.  Louis,  Chicago,  and  New  York,  where  he  stayed  at  a 
hotel  near  Madison  Square.  These  are  all  centres  of  Chinese 
reform.  In  the  past  they  had  maintained  a  united  military 
organisation  with  a  nominal  total  of  4,000  men  under  a  plan 
devised  and  carried  out  by  Sun  Yat-sen's  foreign  aide  and 
adviser,  General  Homer  Lea. 

At  Chicago,  coincident  with  the  declaration  of  independ- 
ence at  Wuchang,  Sun  Yat-sen  issued  a  statement  for  the 
benefit  of  Western  nations  proclaiming  the  principles  upon 
which  the  Rebellion  was  being  promoted.  The  American 
Press  entirely  failed  in  locating  Sun  Yat-sen,  although  he 
missed  his  steamer,  the  Mauretania,  at  New  York  and  had  to 
wait  for  a  succeeding  boat.  He  preserved  incognito  in  Great 
Britain  and  until  he  had  reached  Paris,  after  which,  his 
mission  as  director  of  the  Revolution  being  known,  he 
dropped  his  incognito,  and  his  progress  to  China  by  way  of 
India  was  open  to  the  observation  of  the  world.  In  the 
United  States  he  had  talked  very  quietly  with  the  reform 
leaders  and  made  final  arrangements  for  their  part  in  the 
inauguration  of  the  Republic  of  the  confederated  provinces  of 
China. 

The  first  ovation  which  he  received  from  his  countrymen 
was  at  Singapore,  where  his  departure  was  distinguished  by 
a  tribute  of  flowers  from  Chinese  girls.  At  Hongkong  he 
stopped  long  enough  to  make  a  statement  for  the  information 
of  the  State  Department  at  Washington.  When  he  reached 
Shanghai  it  was  as  a  leader  well  known  abroad  and  without 
clique  entanglements  at  home,  and  whom  for  these  reasons  it 
would  be  safe  to  set  up  as  Provisional  President.  Wu  Ting- 
fang  had  made  up  his  mind  that  China  would  see  many  vicissi- 
tudes before  she  settled  down  to  orderly  government,  and  be- 
lieved in  an  era  of  assassination  of  public  men  continuing 
perhaps  for  a  generation,  such  as  Japan  had  had  after  her 
revolution.  Such  a  history  would  provide  for  successive  presi- 
dencies likely  to  satisfy  many  aspirations.  He  said  that  these 

30-5 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

dangers  did  not  appeal  to  him,  certainly  not  if  the  Capital  was 
to  be  at  Peking. 

Wu  Ting- fang,  for  one,  numbered  Sun  Yat-sen  first  for 
the  Presidency,  because  he  deserved  to  be  recognised.  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  he  numbered  second.  The  most  important  thing 
was  to  secure  the  abdication  of  the  Throne  and  the  uniting  of 
the  country  by  the  selection  of  one  man  agreeable  to  the  larg- 
est number,  a  thing  that  would  require  the  resignation  of  Sun 
Yat-sen.  It  was  an  obvious  necessity  which  Sun  saw  and  like- 
wise agreed  to.  He  was  duly  elected. 

The  manner  of  Sun  Yat-sen's  election  is  proof  of  the  very 
conditions  apprehended  by  Wu  Ting-fang.  A  single  example 
giving  the  status  of  some  "electors"  shows  the  substance  of 
which  he  built  the  Provisional  Government  or  Republic.  The 
"electors"  in  question  represented  the  province  of  Szechuan. 
There  was  a  change  of  the  Military  Government  there,  and  the 
last  in  power  authorised  two  young  men,  one  twenty-six  years 
of  age  and  the  other  twenty-three,  to  represent  a  part  of  the 
province  at  Wuchang,  where  the  first  Republic  was  declared. 
When  the  two  "electors"  arrived  at  Wuchang  the  city  of  Han- 
kow had  fallen,  and  later  Hanyang,  taken  by  the  Imperialists, 
and  they  journeyed  on  to  Shanghai.  By  the  time  they  arrived 
at  Shanghai  they  learned  that  the  military  governor  who 
had  appointed  them  survived  their  appointment  but  four 
days,  when  his  head  was  taken  off  and  his  successor  in- 
stalled. Nevertheless,  the  two  "electors"  went  to  Nanking 
and  as  representatives  of  the  whole  province  of  Szechuan, 
a  province  with  45,000,000  people,  assisted  in  "electing"  Sun 
Yat-sen  as  President.  Delegates  from  other  provinces 
participating  in  the  "election"  were  many  of  them  similarly 
qualified. 

It  was  under  such  conditions  Sun  Yat-sen  actually  confed- 
erated the  Southern  provinces. 

He  had  now  brought  the  provisional  Republic  to  its  trial, 
that  of  its  ability  to  amalgamate  with  the  North.  All  the  in- 
ternational complications  that  had  ever  centred  about  Peking, 
for  this  very  reason  must  manifest  their  menace  and  have 
their  manifestation  at  Nanking.  Their  manifestation  came 

306 


MY    INTERVIEW   WITH    SUN    YAT-SEN 

through  the  doyen  of  the  military  and  diplomatic  nations, 
Japan,  a  country  that  very  nearly  reversed  the  plans  of  the 
Republic  and  the  personal  pledges  of  President  Sun  Yat-sen 
made  in  his  inaugural  oath. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 
THE  REPUBLIC,  JAPAN,  AND  ABDICATION 

THE  anxiety  for  recognition  on  the  part  of  the  Republic 
so  that  it  could  borrow  money  from  a  neutral  country, 
as  well  as  the  conciliatory  methods  of  the  Throne  and 
the  Premier  in  dealing  with  the  Republic,  made  it  apparent 
that  there  was  something  about  China's  situation  that  Presi- 
dent Sun  Yat-sen  and  the  Government  at  Nanking  were  un- 
willing to  tell.  This  was  the  definitely  known  plans  of  Japan. 

"Japan  is  not  acting  with  the  other  Powers,"  said  one  of 
the  highest  members  of  the  Republican  Confederation.  As  he 
spoke  he  stopped  between  the  short  sentences  to  make  sure  of 
their  effect.  "Japan  wants  everything.  She  wants  all  China." 

"What?"  said  I,  thinking  that  he  was  merely  continuing 
the  complaint  against  a  neighbour  whose  subjects  were  perhaps 
making  onerous  financial  or  trade  exactions  and  whose  con- 
suls might  perhaps  be  worrying  the  Republic. 

"Japan  wants  China.  She  will  give  us  something,  but 
she  wants  something  in  return.  She  will  recognise  us — that 
is  what  we  need,  and  that  is  why  she  offers  it — but  we  need 
it  from  you.  We  are  helpless,  We  are  now  at  the  mercy 
of  those  who  can  take  advantage  of  us." 

"The  Government  in  Washington  believes  that  Japan, 
which  you  and  I  know  to  be  your  greatest  problem,  is  acting 
in  good  faith.  It  believes  that  the  Japanese  Cabinet  informs 
it  of  all  that  Japan  does  respecting  China,  in  return  for  which 
the  State  Department  informs  Japan  of  all  that  the  United 
States  does  respecting  China." 

"But  the  Cabinet  does  not  know,"  broke  in  the  Republican 
member.  "It  is  the  genro  [elder  statesmen]  that  make  the 
policy." 

"I  know  what  you  mean,"  said  I,  thinking  he  was  express- 
ing only  the  trite  suspicions  which  so  many  heap  upon  Japan 

308 


THE    REPUBLIC,   JAPAN,   AND   ABDICATION 

and  which  have  become  so  repugnant  to  disinterested  corre- 
spondents, so  I  continued :  "The  State  Department  at  Wash- 
ington believes  that  the  present  Cabinet  in  Japan  is  sincere 
in  its  declarations  and  desires  for  neutrality,  by  all  outside 
Powers,  including  Japan.  The  reason  is  that  like  China,  Japan 
has  no  money  and  cannot  take  over  in  China  something  she 
cannot  swallow.  Therefore  she  can  do  nothing  on  a  great 
scale  for  fear  the  China  question  will  disorganise  her  alliances 
and  conventions  and  get  out  of  hand  altogether.  Do  you 
think  that  the  Government  in  Washington  is  not  likely  to  get 
all  the  facts  of  Japan's  activities  from  the  Tokio  Cabinet?" 

"But  the  Cabinet,  or  the  Minister  of  the  Foreign  Office, 
may  not  know  what  the  genro — what  the  Government  does. 
Japan  wants  to  make  with  us  an  offensive  and  defensive  al- 
liance." I  looked  at  him  in  amazement  as  he  went  on : 

"She  asks  that  of  us.  We  have  kept  this  in  the  back- 
ground so  far;  she  urges  it,  and -if  we  are  not  recognised  by 
the  Powers  and  do  not  come  under  their  united  protection,  I 
do  not  see  how  we  can  continue  to  resist.  We  could  not  con- 
tinue to  resist,  and  Japan,  of  course,  offers  us  something.  She 
has  something  to  offer  us  and  something  to  receive  from  us." 

"You  mean  she  wants   Manchuria?" 

"No.  She  asks  for  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance 
and  offers  her  naval  and  military  resources  to  build  up  for 
us  an  army  and  a  navy." 

"Is  that  so?" 

"Yes." 

"You  don't  want  it?" 

"We  would  be  afraid  of  it." 

"Japan  with  her  greater  number  of  trained  men  would 
swamp  your  few  students  and  reformers,  and  the  limited 
number  of  trained  officials  at  your  command,  and  your  Pro- 
visional Government  would  fall  into  the  hands  of  Japan's 
trained  men :  is  that  what  you  mean  ?" 

The  Republican  member  assented. 

"I  appreciate  the  nature  of  the  problem.  It  is  a  serious 
situation  that  you  are  facing.  Are  you  obliged  to  give  an 
answer  ?" 

309 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

"We  have  kept  it  in  the  background.  But  they  are  delay- 
ing the  abdication." 

"They  want  to  force  you." 

"We  do  not  know  how  long  we  can  resist  without  recogni- 
tion. We  must  have  recognition  from  others  than  Japan 
before  we  can  answer  her." 

"Do  you  fear  a  surprise?" 

"Japan  is  mobilising.  Three  divisions  are  represented  in 
Manchuria,  and  a  fourth  has  just  landed  at  Dalny — Japan's 
army  and  navy  are  mobilised.  Manchuria  is  one  of  our  bases 
of  operation.  We  are  fighting  there,  in  neutral  territory,  with 
Japanese  consent.  We  do  not  know  at  what  moment  Japan 
might  make  this  an  excuse  for  pressing  us.  She  has  been  our 
friend,  the  only  friend  now  when  we  need  money  and  recog- 
nition. We  are  obligated  to  her.  She  has  given  us  money 
on  the  Hanyang  Iron  Works  and  other  things.  But  we  can- 
not go  on  like  this.  If  we  do,  China  will  be  in  the  hands  of 
the  Japanese  in  two  months." 

"How  much  have  you  accepted  from  Japan,  taking  the 
Iron  Works  first?" 

"That  is  15,000,000  yen,  together  with  the  Ta  Yeh  Mines 
and  the  Ping-hsiang  Railway ;  the  Chekiang  Railway — Kiang- 
su  section — 3,000,000  yen,  and  the  China  ^Merchants'  Steam 
Navigation  Company." 

"Has  that  last  loan  been  completed?" 

"Not  entirely,  but  will  be  in  a  few  days." 

"Altogether,  that  represents  about  28,000,000  yen  in  loans, 
as  I  understand  it.  How  much  are  your  expenditures?" 

"About  1,000,000  yen  per  day — that  is,  just  in  this  part," 
said  the  Republican  member,  making  a  movement  with  his 
hand  to  illustrate  his  meaning  that  this  amount  was  merely 
the  expenditure  in  the  vicinity  of  Nanking  for  the  Govern- 
ment there,  and  the  expedition  to  the  North  up  the  Tientsin- 
Pukow  Railway. 

"You  see  we  cannot  obligate  ourselves  to  Japan  alone — 
we  need  recognition  from  others  to  offset  the  obligations  we 
have  already  assumed." 

"Why  not  make  your  situation  known?  If  this  is  the  crisis, 

310 


THE   REPUBLIC,   JAPAN,   AND   ABDICATION 

it  might  be  best  to  explain  China's  position  and  say  what 
Japan  has  done." 

"We  cannot  afford  to  offend  Japan,  she  has  been  our 
friend." 

"It  is  Japan's  plans  and  what  she  has  in  mind  that  is 
important  and  which  if  known  would  influence  the  other 
Governments." 

"The  proposal  must  not  be  made  known.  Coming  from 
the  genro,  it  can  be  officially  denied  by  the  Japanese  Cabinet. 
If  it  were  made  known  the  Japanese  would  immediately  work 
against  us." 

The  iron  heel  of  China's  foreign  complications  was  now 
grinding  the  heart  out  of  her  reformers,  and  was  proving  it- 
self master  of  the  revolution,  before  which  both  the  Republican 
Government  and  the  Throne  were  stunned.  Count  de  Gabalis 
says  r  "Learn  of  the  philosophers  always  to  look  for  natural 
causes  in  all  extraordinary  events;  and  when  such  natural 
causes  are  wanting  recur  to  God."  In  China  all  things  are 
explained  by  her  foreign  complications. 

The  Republican  Government  had  counted  out  its  assets 
and  found  that  it  was  barely  possible  on  its  working  mines, 
railways,  and  steamships  to  realise  28,000,000  yen,  arid  on 
its  Arsenal  3,000,000  or  4,000,000  additional,  which  altogether 
would  pay  the  working  expenses  of  the  Nanking  Government 
for  one  month.  Contributions  and  incomes  from  other  sources 
would  carry  the  Government  forward.  But  toward  the  end 
of  the  second  month,  unless  recognition  came  from  the  Pow- 
ers and  the  shelter  of  international  neutrality  was  extended 
to  the  Republic,  it  would  be  forced  by  its  eminent  responsi- 
bility to  Japan,  for  her  solitary  financial  aid,  to  acknowledge 
their  alliance  and  to  depend  upon  her  for  military  aid  in  sub- 
stantiating the  Republic. 

From  the  Great  Powers — those  allied  or  united  by  con- 
ventions and  unity  of  interests  with  Japan,  namely,  Great  Bri- 
tain, Russia,  and  France — the  Republic  could  expect  no  recog- 
nition except  through  and  after  Japan.  This  left  only  Ger- 
many and  the  United  States  from  which  the  Republic  could 
hope  for  unqualified  recognition.  With  the  United  States  on 

3" 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

record  as  relying  upon  the  Government  in  Tokio,  in  whom  it 
had  pledged  confidence,  Germany  was  alone,  and  could  do 
nothing.  And  now  the  United  States  through  its  representa- 
tives definitely  informed  the  leaders  of  the  Republic  that  they 
could  not  expect  recognition  from  "the  Great  White  Father" 
beyond  the  waters. 

"I  hope  you  have  power  to  recognise  us?"  said  Tang 
Shao-yi. 

"We  have  nothing  of  the  kind,"  said  the  representatives, 
speaking  for  the  Government.  "We  are  working  for  the  best 
interests  of  China  and  do  not  know  of  any  better  way  of  in- 
juring her  than  independently  recognising  the  Republic.  Our 
power  of  aiding  China  is  through  the  influence  which  we  may 
exert  upon  the  other  Powers." 

Germany  is  alone  and  equally  helpless.  The  United  States 
has  to  confess  its  helplessness,  and  by  its  reliance  upon  Japan 
throws  down  the  hopes  of  the  Republic.  President  Sun  Yat- 
sen  has  received  these  facts  is  unmistakable  substance 
and  with  unmistakable  emphasis  from  the  representatives 
of  the  American  Government  and  is  obliged  to  accept 
them  as  a  crushing  ultimatum  from  the  great  Republic 
which  was  his  best  hope  of  aid.  He  has  now  to  turn  to 
Peking. 

With  Great  Britain,  Russia,  and  France  under  control  of 
Japan  against  him,  with  Germany  and  the  United  States  help- 
less, his  situation  is  resolved  into  the  original  equation.  It  is 
that  of  man  to  man.  President  Sun  Yat-sen  has  only  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai. 

For  twenty  years  Sun  Yat-sen  has  pursued  his  aims  for 
the  regeneration  of  his  country  and  its  redemption  from  for- 
eign conquest.  He  has  received  his  support  and  encourage- 
ment from  foreign  countries,  and  in  the  hour  of  his  severest 
struggles  he  has  a  right  to  expect  from  them  that  support 
which  is  so  essential. 

His  efforts  have  been  largely  directed  against  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai.  When  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  treason  to  the  cause  of  reform  in 
1898  resulted  in  the  confinement  of  the  Emperor  Kuang  Hsu, 
Sun  Yat-sen  had  organised  a  military  relief  corps  to  rescue 

312 


THE    REPUBLIC,   JAPAN,   AND    ABDICATION 

him,  a  plan  defeated  by  the  Boxer  War  and  the  flight  of  the 
Court  to  Hsian-fu.  Reformers  and  revolutionaries  like  Dr. 
Yung  Wing,  Kang  Yu-wei,  and  Liang  Chi-chiao,  with  whom 
he  had  been  schooled,  warned  him  to  the  last  against  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai.  It  was  natural,  therefore,  that  he  should  receive 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  repudiation  of  the  peace  agreement  made  by 
his  Envoy,  Tang  Shao-yi,  with  suspicion,  and  that  in  the 
Throne's  edict  proposing  to  delegate  its  power  to  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai  he  should  see  the  structure  of  a  coup  d'etat  to  defeat  the 
Republic  and  all  that  it  had  achieved. 

Under  the  circumstances  it  was  impossible  to  carry  out 
his  promise  to  elect  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  as  President  and  resign 
in  his  favour.  "I  thought,"  said  President  Sun  Yat-sen  (Jan- 
uary 22,  1912),  "that  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  could  sever  his  connec- 
tions with  whatever  concerned  the  Manchu  government,  and 
could  become  a  citizen  of  the  Republic,  so  I  promised  forth- 
with to  elect  him  President.  But  judging  from  his  telegrams, 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  idea  is  not  only  the  removal  of  the  Manchu 
Government,  but  the  cancelling  of  the  Republican  Provisional 
Government,  while  he  would  form  another  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment in  Peking.  But  who  knows  whether  such  a  Provi- 
sional Government  will  be  that, of  a  constitutional  monarchy 
or  a  republic?  Even  assuming  that  he  himself  calls  it  a  re- 
publican government,  then  who  guarantees  it?  My  office  will 
be  relinquished  when  all  the  Powers  have  recognised  us. 
My  sole  aim  and  desire  is  the  consolidation  of  the  Republic, 
and  there  is  no  clashing  between  my  present  and  former  in- 
tentions. If  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  can  really  carry  out  our  clause 
of  severing  his  connection  with  what  concerns  the  Manchu 
Government  and  become  a  citizen  of  the  Republic,  then  I  will 
keep  my  words." 

January  25  the  Republican  Assembly  7 150  P.M.,  after  a 
special  meeting,  declared  with  reference  to  the  peace  negotia- 
tions and  President  Sun  Yat-sen's  voluntary  offer  to  resign 
the  Presidency  of  the  Republic  in  favour  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai, 
that  the  offer  to  resign,  and  to  request  the  people  to  elect 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai  as  President  of  the  Republic,  came  entirely 
and  solely  from  Sun  Yat-sen  himself.  Not  only  was  it  not 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

suggested  by  any  one  of  the  Republican  party  but  President 
Sun  Yat-sen  had  to  overcome  great  opposition  from  members 
of  the  Assembly,  and  it  was  only  after  much  persuasion  and 
reasoning  that  his  views  were  accepted  so  as  to  bring  about 
a  peaceful  solution  of  the  national  problem  and  prevent  further 
bloodshed.  It  was  clearly  stipulated  that  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
should  join  the  Republican  party,  and  it  was  not  possible  for 
the  people  to  elect  him  President  until  he  had  declared  for  the 
Republic.  The  original  terms  to  the  Manchus  still  hold  good 
as  well  as  the  offer  to  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  provided  he  complies 
with  the  conditions  just  mentioned. 

I  know  no  more  dramatic  moment  in  the  career  of  the 
Nanking  Provisional  Government  and  the  Provisional  Repub- 
lic of  China  than  this,  nor  in  the  life  of  the  man  Sun  Yat-sen. 
These  declarations  came  on  the  eve  of  the  arrival  of  the 
United  States  Government's  Envoy,  Dr.  Tenney,  from  whom 
the  Republic  learned  finally  not  only  the  exact  position  of  the 
United  States  but  confirmation  of  the  helplessness  of  both 
before  the  Juggernaut  of  the  Powers. 

"Agree  with  thine  adversary  quickly,"  was  the  message 
of  this  situation  ringing  in  the  ears  of  Sun  Yat-sen,  "lest  at 
any  time  the  adversary  deliver  thee  to  the  judge,  and  the 
judge  deliver  thee  to  the  officer  and  thou  be  cast  into 
prison."  "Verily  I  say  unto  thee,  thou  shalt  by  no  means 
come  out  thence,  till  thou  hast  paid  the  uttermost  farthing," 
came  this  message  from  that  Western  Republic  which  was  the 
model  of  the  Provisional  Government,  and  the  inspiration  of 
the  Republic  of  China. 

The  period  of  personal  negotiations  with  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
during  which  President  Sun  Yat-sen  expresses  confidence  in 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  sincerity  and  makes  an  armistice,  can  be 
determined  to  be  continuous  up  to  this  moment.  Sun  Yat- 
sen,  acting  on  the  spirit  of  this  clarion  message  from  the 
skies,  to  "agree  with  his  adversary  quickly,"  seeks  a  com- 
promise by  which  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  will  accept  the  delegated 
power  of  ^the  Presidency  instead  of  that  of  the  Throne.  Thus 
does  Sun  Yat-sen  seek  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  commitment  to  the 
Republic  and  a  guarantee  that  by  resigning  he  himself  puts 

314 


THE    REPUBLIC,   JAPAN,   AND   ABDICATION 

the  whole  responsibilities  of  China,  internal  and  external,  upon 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai. 

It  seems  necessary  in  order  to  explain  the  situation  of 
President  Sun  Yat-sen,  and  the  course  of  reasoning  by  which 
he  was  forced,  unaided  and  alone,  as  events  will  prove,  to 
decide  upon  the  course  of  action  which  he  took,  to  review  the 
public  history  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  in  relation  to  Japan  and  to 
China's  foreign  complications.  It  begins  with  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's 
tutelage  to  Li  Hung-chang  in  the  days  when  Li  Hung-chang, 
1882,  brought  the  United  States  into  treaty  relations  with 
Korea,  opening  that  country  to  foreign  intercourse  in  order  to 
raise  a  barrier  in  that  kingdom  against  Japanese  aggression 
upon  China. 

A  little  over  ten  years  later,  1894,  his  representative,  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai,  an  indomitable  opponent  of  the  Japanese,  precipi- 
tated the  China-Japan  War.  This  was  an  affair  in  which 
China  lost,  and  by  which  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  became  a  soberer, 
more  subtle,  and  more  formidable  opponent  than  before. 

Through  the  steadily  accumulating  failures  to  arrest 
Japan's  aggression  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  rose  in  power,  the  succes- 
sor of  Li  Hung-chang.  After  the  failure  of  Li  Hung-chang's 
device  of  stopping  Japan  from  crossing  the  Yalu  River  by 
admitting  Russia  to  Manchuria,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  became  Grand 
Councillor  and  chief  reliance  of  the  Empress  [Grand]  Dow- 
ager in  the  still  more  formidable  foreign  questions  arising 
from  this  failure — the  defeat  of  Russia  in  the  Russo-Japanese 
War.  Called  from  retirement  and  the  obloquy  placed  upon 
him  by  the  Empress  Grand  Dowager's  successors,  the  first 
words  which  he  addressed  to  the  revolutionaries  and  republi- 
cans— November  n,  1911,  pointed  out  through  his  delegates 
to  Li  Yuan-hung  at  Wuchang — was  the  warning  presented  to 
the  nation  by  the  menace  of  Japan  and  Russia.  Because  that 
danger  in  all  its  formidableness  reached  Nanking,  President 
Sun  Yat-sen  knows  that  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  right  in  those 
warnings  ridiculed  by  Li  Yuan-hung  owing  to  the  feelings 
existing  at  Wuchang  at  the  time,  against  the  Manchus. 

It  was  apparent  that  of  the  two  reasons  given  by  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  for  undertaking  the  Premiership  to  which  he  had 

315 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

been  appointed  by  the  Manchus,  namely,  that  he  could  not  but 
lend  a  helping  hand  to  the  Manchus  to  whom  he  was  in- 
debted, and  also,  because  of  the  dangers  from  Japan  and 
Russia,  that  the  latter  was  the  real  reason  for  his  resuming 
the  burdens  and  dangers  of  office  at  Peking. 

Sun  Yat-sen  ignored  for  the  time  being  some  of  the  most 
important  questions  in  order  to  reach  an  understanding  with 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai  leading  to  a  settlement.  These  included  the 
important  consideration,  first,  as  to  whether  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
should  be  the  sole  representative  to  organise  a  Provisional 
Republican  Government ;  second,  the  establishment  of  the 
Capital  at  Nanking;  and  third,  the  removal  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
to  Nanking  for  inauguration,  and  taking  of  the  oath  before 
the  electors. 

But  the  main  question  was  settled,  the  definite  and  final 
'surrender  of  power  by  the  Manchus.  February  i  the  Throne 
authorised  the  Chinese  Foreign  Office  (Wai-wu-pu)  to  make 
peace  by  concluding  the  terms  affecting  the  Court  and  Man- 
chus. February  6  the  25  members  of  the  Republican  Assem- 
bly at  Nanking,  representing  15  provinces,  discussed  those 
terms  as  forwarded  by  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  and  February  9  an 
agreement  was  reached,  and  an  armistice  declared  for  a  week, 
to  give  time  for  ratification  by  the  Throne  and  promulgation 
of  the  abdication  edict. 

February  u  the  Cabinet  at  Peking  received  Prince  Ching 
in  audience,  to  commemorate  its  farewell  to  the  Imperial  Clan/ 
and  the  Chinese  Foreign  Office  announced  the  Republic's  ac- 
ceptance of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  terms. 

Simultaneously  with  the  Chinese  Foreign  Office's  an- 
nouncement the  Republican  Assembly,  and  Wu  Ting-fang  as 
Peace  Commissioner,  reiterated  the  Republic's  determination 
that  no  other  consideration  would  be  entertained  until  the 
abdication  was  an  accomplished  fact. 

February  12,  1912,  came  the  long-expected  edict  from  the 
hand  of  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager,  who  said : 

"I,  hand  in  hand  with  the  Emperor,  hereby  transfer  the 
power  of  Sovereignty  to  be  the  public  property  of  the  whole 
nation,  and  decide  that  the  form  of  government  shall  be 


THE    REPUBLIC,   JAPAN,   AND   ABDICATION 

republican  constitutional,  to  satisfy  the  present  feeling  within 
the  seas,  the  detestation  of  disturbance,  and  the  expectation 
of  peace,  as  well  as  to  follow  the  ancient  sages  in  regarding 
the  world  as  public  property. 

"Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  having  been  formally  elected  Premier  by 
the  National  Assembly,  stands  at  this  juncture  between  the 
New  and  the  Old  regimes,  and  has  surely  devised  a  plan  for 
unifying  the  South  and  the  North.  Let  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  organ- 
ise with  full  powers  a  Provisional  Republican  Government 
and  confer  with  the  People's  Army  as  to  the  methods  of  pro- 
cedure for  the  union,  so  that  peace  may  be  assured  to  the 
people  and  the  nation,  but  still  with  the  complete  integrity  of 
the  territories  of  the  five  races  of  Manchus,  Chinese,  Mongols, 
Mohammedans,  and  Tibetans  combined,  forming  a  great  Re- 
public of  China,  and  I  and  the  Emperor  may  retire  into  a 
leisured  life  and  spend  our  years  pleasantly,  enjoying  courte- 
ous treatment  from  the  citizens,  and  seeing  with  our  own  eyes 
the  completion  of  an  ideal  Government.  Would  this  not  be  a 
grand  feat?  Respect  this." 

Thus  with  the  twenty-fifth  day  of  the  twelfth  moon  of  the 
third  year  of  Hsuan  Tung  the  Manchu  Dynasty  and  the 
Dynastic  calendar  ended. 

Abdication  was  an  accomplished  fact. 


CHAPTER  XXX 
WORLD  INFLUENCE  IN  THE  REPUBLIC 

JAPAN  exercises  the  formidable  influence  upon  the  affairs 
of  Eastern  Asia  that  has  been  prophesied.     There  is 
therefore  nothing  surprising  respecting  her  part  in  the 
Chinese  revolutionary  Rebellion,   1911-1912. 

As  for  the  other  Powers,  Great  Britain  and  France  may 
be  mentioned  first  on  account  of  their  extensive  contact  with 
the  Empire  of  China,  and  because  their  influence  upon  that 
Empire  has  passed  through  such  varied  stages.  The  influ- 
ence of  France  in  the  Empire,  exercised  through  the  long  con- 
tact of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  is  not  apparent  in  the  Re- 
public. Great  Britain's  educational  and  enlightening  influence 
in  China  is  great,  but  in  her  principal  achievement  of  the 
development  of  industry  and  commerce  there  the  traditional 
bearing  of  her  influence  is  to  conserve.  It  is  wholly  contrary 
to  revolution,  and  to  change  of  the  form  of  government. 

In  her  industrial  interests  in  China  France  has  united  in 
a  mutual  policy,  by  financial  and  commercial  alliances,  with 
Great  Britain.  Great  Britain  allied  herself  with  Japan  and 
acquiesced  in  her  policies  and  patronage.  Simultaneously 
France  joined  Russia  in  an  alliance,  Japan  then  in  war  de- 
feated Russia,  and  with  the  rise  of  Japan,  Great  Britain  and 
France  more  closely  affiliated  with  the  two,  and  the  four  na- 
tions formed  a  group,  pledged  to  the  extension  of  their  own 
interests  and  removed  from  considerations  of  any  special  in- 
terest in  the  welfare  of  China  herself. 

Germany  is  a  great  nation  or  Empire  exerting  a  powerful 
influence  in  the  world  at  large  whose  traditions  render  it 
impossible  that  she  should  ever,  except  inversely  and  in  spite 
of  herself,  promote  the  republican  or  representative  system 
of  reform  in  China.  Solely  and  unaided,  she  forced  her  way 
to  an  equal  share  with  Great  Britain  and  France,  backed  by 


WORLD    INFLUENCE    IN    THE    REPUBLIC 

their  allies  Japan  and  Russia,  in  China's  industrial  and  com- 
mercial development,  and  likewise  represents  only  such  prin- 
ciples in  China  as  protect  and  extend  her  trade  and  financial 
interests.  Germany  stands  alone. 

The  influence  of  Italy,  Austria,  and  the  lesser  Powers  in 
China  has  not  reached  that  importance  to  give  it  definition. 
Russia's  influence  is  confined  solely  to  the  Mongolian  and 
Manchurian  frontier,  to  regions  on  the  outskirts  of  China 
proper  inhabited  by  races  different  from  Chinese,  and  to  the 
affairs  of  the  four  allied  nations  mentioned,  which  I  will  call 
the  Quadruple  Group.  All  other  considerations  of  the  Quad- 
ruple Group,  in  China  and  Eastern  Asia,  are  buried  in  its 
political  and  commercial  interests.  In  the  questions  of  the 
Republic  of  China  this  Group  and  the  Powers  constituting  it 
are  dominated  by  Japan. 

There  is  but  one  other  great  Power  whose  influence  in 
Eastern  Asia  is  of  first  rank,  and  that  is  America.  The  in- 
fluence of  America  in  China  as  well  as  in  Japan  has  been 
educational,  and  America's  example  as  a  Republic  -has  been  a 
powerful  force  of  enlightenment  in  government  and  human 
rights.  The  ideal  leader,  in  the  minds  of  the  revolutionaries 
who  established  the  Republic  of  China,  has  been  George 
Washington.  According  to  Bishop  Bashford,  it  was  the  great- 
est compliment  America  ever  had  paid  to  her  when  China 
with  her  300,000,000  or  400,000,000  people  entitled  to  human 
rights  became  a  Republic. 

The  Chinese  understand  American  influence,  and  they 
know  by  the  American  schools  and  missions  scattered  through- 
out China  and  by  the  constant  policy  of  protecting,  assisting, 
and  encouraging  China  pursued  by  the  American  Government 
and  people,  that  America's  influence  is  to  them  a  helping  hand. 
Japan,  jealous  of  the  extension  of  those  benefits  to  her  neigh- 
bours which  she  has  herself  received  from  America,  is  opposed 
to  American  influence  in  Eastern  Asia  in  the  present  era  be- 
cause it  interferes  with  politics  and  intrigue,  which  is  the 
whole  political  substance  of  the  era  there. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  influences  in  China's  revolutionary 
Rebellion  divide  themselves  into  two  kinds,  namely,  Ameri-p 

319 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

can  and  anti-American.  The  Quadruple  Group  headed  by 
Japan  is  a  unit  on  the  one  side,  with  America  on  the  other, 
and  they  stand  opposed. 

From  the  close  of  the  Russo-Japanese  War  to  the  opening 
of  the  revolutionary  Rebellion  in  China  the  world  rang  with 
stories  of  war  between  Japan  and  America.  These  war  ru- 
mours and  the  known  diplomatic  and  political  contentions  be- 
tween the  two  countries  showed  that  antagonism  existed  in 
their  opposition.  The  fundamental  basis  of  such  a  contingency 
as  war  between  Japan  and  America  could  only  be  that  of 
American  influence  in  China.  These  circumstances  make  the 
influence  of  Japan  and  America  in  the  Pacific  with  respect 
to  the  establishment  of  the  "Flowery  Republic"  paramount  to 
the  influences  of  all  other  Powers. 

The  position  of  America  with  respect  to  China  was  crys- 
tallized 1843  m  one  °f  complete  neutrality,  friendship,  and 
disinterested  aid  in  the  preservation  to  China  of  her  sover- 
eignty and  place  among  nations.  It  has  never  changed,  and 
with  the  inauguration  of  the  Republic  promises  to  continue. 
America  introduced  the  Protestant  missions  into  China  as 
well  as  Protestant  and  non-sectarian  schools  for  the  diffusion 
of  Western  knowledge,  and  has  been  the  pioneer  and  chief 
exponent  leading  all  other  nations,  in  democracy  of  learning 
in  Eastern  Asia.  These  things  and  the  signal  example  of  the 
American  Republic  among  free  nations  as  a  message  to  man- 
kind explains  her  whole  influence  in  Eastern  Asia,  whose 
crowning  testimony  is  the  conversion  of  the  despotic  Empire 
of  China  to  a  Republic. 

However,  the  question  of  foreign  influence  upon  the  Chi- 
nese is  more  easily  defined  in  the  case  of  Japan  than  in  that 
of  any  other  outside  nation.  Her  definite  and  forcible  im- 
pression on  China  dates  only  from  the  Boxer  War  or  later, 
and  at  the  opening  of  the  revolutionary  rebellion  is  not  ten 
years  old. 

In  1900,  when  I  first  went  to  China,  I  lodged  for  a  time 
in  the  Provincial  College  of  Chihli,  at  Paoting-fu.  I  was  a 
guest  of  the  Chancellor,  who  had  a  desire  to  know  what  was 
the  place  occupied  by  the  Japanese  among  the  allied  Powers 

320 


WORLD    INFLUENCE    IN    THE    REPUBLIC 

in  China.  He  said  that  the  College,  several  years  previous 
to  that  time,  had  a  Japanese  student  who  made  a  very  good 
impression  by  his  work  in  the  Chinese  classics.  This  student 
had  been  entrusted  with  taels  400  from  the  College  with  which 
to  buy  printing-paper  in  Japan,  had  taken  the  money,  departed 
for  his  native  land  to  make  the  purchase,  had  never  returned, 
and  had  neither  forwarded  the  paper  nor  accounted  for  the 
money.  The  Chancellor  was  under  the  impression  that  the 
Japanese  had  borrowed  their  prestige  from  their  Western  col- 
leagues and  slipped  into  China  under  the  foreign  mantle. 
Although  the  China-Japan  War  had  intervened,  this  was  a 
fair  example  of  the  knowledge  possessed  among  Chinese  re- 
specting *  Japanese.  Therefore  it  may  be  said  that  in  1900 
Japan,  to  the  Chinese,  was  merely  a  country  that  had  taken 
everything  from  China,  except  modern  ideas,  and  warfare, 
and  given  nothing  in  return. 

As  beneficiaries  of  Chinese  civilisation  the  Japanese  have 
an  intercourse  with  China  extensive  in  its  history.  Japan's 
travellers,  pilgrims,  geographers,  warriors,  and  traders,  how- 
ever, appear  to  have  left  no  great  impression  upon  the  Chinese 
and  in  the  light  of  China's  revolutionary  present  may  be 
passed  over. 

China  took  too  little  account  of  the  China-Japan  War  of 
1894-1896,  and  in  fact  began  to  realise  Japan's  importance 
only  through  the  reputation  which  Japan  had  in  the  West. 
Japan's  modern  appearance  on  the  continent  of  Asia  came  first 
in  Korea,  where  she  made  a  modern  treaty  in  accordance  with 
Western  practice  (her  first  on  her  own  initiative),  in  the  yo's. 
What  are  called  civilised  diplomatic  relations  between  Japan 
and  China,  and  the  establishment  of  legations  by  China  and 
Japan  in  their  two  capitals,  were  brought  about  largely  by  an 
American  missionary,  Dr.  Davie  Bethune  McCartee.  Japan 
was  only  established  on  the  mainland  through  events  in  Fu- 
kien,  opposite  Formosa.  This  latter  she  took  from  China  by 
the  China- Japan  War. 

It  was  only  after  1900  that  the  Japanese  can  be  said  to 
have  fully  established  themselves  in  all  the  treaty-ports.  At 
the  end  of  the  first  decade  of  the  century,  Japanese  were  in 

321 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

the  majority  among  foreigners  in  China  at  every  treaty-port 
and  treaty-mart  north  of-  Chefoo.  At  Tientsin  their  colony 
grew  at  the  rate  of  200  annually. 

An  interesting  exchange  of  official  inquiry  took  place  be- 
tween Russia  and  Japan  in  1910,  respecting  their  subjects  in 
Chinese  treaty-marts  on  the  Siberian  frontier,  that  shows 
Japanese  colonisation  in  China  to  have  become  a  political 
question  of  considerable  acuteness.  The  complications  of  the 
Russo-Japanese  questions  led  Russia  to  ask  Japan  why  she 
had  sent  a  consul  to  Aigun  on  the  Amur  River  in  the  zone  of 
Russia's  special  trade  rights.  Japan  replied  that  it  was  because 
she  had  250  subjects  there.  She  retorted  by  asking  Russia 
why  Russia  had  sent  a  consul  to  Chientao  on  the  Korean 
frontier.  Russia  could  only  reply  that  it  was  because  she 
had  four  subjects  there  (including  the  Consul).  All  this  is 
a  part  of  the  expansion  of  Japan  expressed  in  various  words 
and  phrases,  but  best  comprehended  in  the  term  "Greater 
Japan." 

Apprehension  by  China  corresponding  to  that  of  Russia 
was  expressed  in  almost  innumerable  protests  to  Japanese  ex- 
pansion in  Manchuria  after  the  Russo-Japanese  War,  as  well 
as  to  Japanese  activity  in  South-eastern,  Central,  and  Western 
China.  In  1908  China  complained  of  and  was  alarmed  by 
Japanese  military  surveys  in  the  region  of  the  Great  Wall  and 
in  Mongolia.  It  was  at  this  time  that  the  Government  in 
Peking  began  to  feel  the  revolutionary  force  of  reform  ideas 
among  students  returning  from  foreign  lands,  and  in  masses 
from  Japan.  The  late  Empress  Grand  Dowager,  coincident 
with  the  question  of  education  of  Chinese  in  America,  under 
the  scheme  by  which  America  restored  her  share  of  the  Boxer 
indemnities,  stated  that  China  must  send  fewer  young  men  to 
Japan,  because  those  going  to  Japan  largely  became  revolu- 
tionaries. 

It  will  give  some  idea  of  Japanese  origins  in  the  Chinese 
revolutionary  rebellion  to  state  that  perhaps  20,000  Chinese 
reformers  and  students  have  gotten  their  ideas  for  revolution 
in  Japan.  As  revolutionaries  in  China  they  have  been  to  the 
front  since  1903,  when  the  Empress  [Grand]  Dowager  had  one 

322 


WORLD    INFLUENCE    IN    THE    REPUBLIC 

of  them.  Shen  Chin,  beaten  to  death  with  a  stave  in  the  Im- 
perial prison  outside  the  Palace  gates.  They  grew  to  be  mas- 
ter Revolutionists  in  China,  with  unsuspected  power  of  organi- 
sation if  not  of  agitation.  Their  progress  was  marked  by 
revolutionary  outbreaks,  such  as  the  destruction  of  a  railway 
carriage  by  a  bomb  and  wounding  of  several  high  officials 
at  Peking,  1905 ;  the  assassination  of  the  Governor  of  Anhuei 
Province,  1907;  and  conspiracies  at  Canton,  together  with  sev- 
eral raids  and  mutinies. 

The  progressive  movement  in  China  is  one  of  Chinese 
enlightened  by  all  Western  countries,  but  the  foremost  revo- 
lutionaries in  the  rebellion  of  September  and  October,  1911, 
and  in  instances  where  force  and  violence  leading  up  to  it 
have  been  employed,  come  from  the  school  of  Chinese  revo- 
lutionary reformers  in  Japan.  I  recall  a  plot  by  Chinese  stu- 
dents returned  from  Japan  to  assassinate  the  Empress  [Grand] 
Dowager.  It  came  intimately  before  my  observation  because 
I  had  occasion  to  persuade  a  student  friend  who  had  been 
educated  in  another  land,  to  stay  out  of  this  particular  con- 
spiracy, which  ultimately  fell  through. 

Japan's  influence  over  the  Chinese  student  has  been  in- 
evitable, and  it  is  no  derogation  of  the  Japanese  to  say  that 
influences  developed  on  their  shores  manifested  themselves  in 
revolution  on  the  Asian  continent,  in  political  conspiracy,  ar- 
son, assassination,  murder,  and  other  crimes.  As  far  as  I 
know,  these  accompaniments  of  China's  revolutionary  Rebel- 
lion are  assignable  to  the  leaven  of  Western  ideas. 

Certain  chapters  in  the  history  of  Japan  on  the  continent, 
such  as  that  of  Korea  when  the  Korean  Queen  was  murdered 
by  Japanese,  have  inspired  Japan's  critics  to  attribute  to  her 
responsibilities  for  the  outbreak  of  the  present  Rebellion. 
There  is  nothing  to  show  that  Japanese  in  China  have  violated 
their  right  of  sanctuary  as  was  done  in  Korea  at  the  time 
mentioned.  The  outbreak  in  China  mainly  due  to  the  en- 
deavours of  reformers  and  revolutionaries  who  had  been  to 
Japan  and  whose  organisation  for  revolution  was  developed 
there,  furnishes  records  of  events  in  the  inauguration  of  re- 
publicanism in  China  that  are  quite  clear. 

323 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

In  Szechuan,  which  began  revolt,  a  large  percentage  of 
the  members  of  the  Provincial  Assembly  were  students  re- 
turned from  Japan,  and  one  of  them,  Pu  Tien-chun,  their 
leader,  was  President  of  the  Assembly.  Yang  Tu,  a  Japan- 
schooled  Hunanese,  from  1907  was  leader  of  the  younger  or 
reform  party,  whose  agitation  among  the  Chinese  students  in 
Japan  (where  anarchy  had  already  established  itself) 
caused  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  while  still  in  power,  to  offer  him 
office  in  order  to  control  his  agitation.  He  attached 
himself  to  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  only  after  the  Rebellion  was  suc- 
cessful. 

Sun  Yat-sen  and  Huang  Hsing  received  welcome  support 
for  years  from  Japan,  and  an  influential  Japanese  friend  of 
Huang  Hsing,  Mr.  Inukai,  fomented  in  the  Japanese  Diet  a 
movement  for  recognition  of  the  Republic  of  China,  which 
the  Nanking  Government  promoted  along  with  the  loan  con- 
tracts which  it  was  giving  to  Japanese. 

Hunan  and  Hupeh  provinces  furnish  almost  the  whole 
history  of  the  rise  of  the  Rebellion.  The  gentry  of  Hunan, 
who  have  always  been  the  most  powerful  of  the  gentry  class 
in  China,  convinced  by  the  foreign  or  Japanised  young  men  of 
their  province,  furnished  the  support,  under  Li  Yuan-hung's 
direction,  of  the  most  important  rebellion  which  China  has 
ever  had.  It  is  of  greater  consequence  to  China  than  the  mere 
change  of  Dynasty,  and  to  a  degree  is  a  monument  to  the 
Chinese  revolutionaries  schooled  in  Japan. 

Japan's  policy  toward  the  revolutionary  Rebellion  was 
shaped  in  the  beginning  by  the  conditions  in  Manchuria  and 
the  interests  of  the  Quadruple  Group.  She  supported  the 
Manchu  Dynasty  of  Manchuria  and  the  North,  as  against  the 
Republic  and  the  South.  America,  like  other  outside  Powers, 
had  to  follow  this  lead,  which  was  competent,  if  necessary,  to 
dictate  to  China  the  form  the  future  government  should  take. 
The  Japanese  Minister  at  Peking,  Mr.  Ijuin,  expressed 
the  adherence  of  Japan  to  the  principle  that  a  constitutional 
monarchy  was  the  only  safe  form  of  government  for 
China. 

The  place  of  Japan  in  China's  revolutionary  Rebellion  and 

324 


WORLD    INFLUENCE    IN    THE    REPUBLIC 

the  place  which  Japan  will  have  on  the  continent  of  Asia 
hereafter,  is  explained  by  the  history,  since  the  signing  of  the 
Portsmouth  Treaty,  of  the  question  of  Manchuria,  a  word  in 
which  all  discussion  of  affairs  in  Eastern  Asia  ends. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 
JAPAN,  AMERICA,  AND  REVOLUTION 

I  HAVE  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  rebellion  broke  out 
in  the  industrial  region  that  is  the  centre  of  European 
and  American  loan  operations,  due  to  revolutionaries 
largely  of  the  Japanese  school.  Japan  is  not  a  capitalistic 
nation  but  a  military  one  that  leans  upon  opportunity.  Her 
field  since  the  Russo-Japanese  War  has  been  that  of  chance 
and  fortunate  opportunity,  out  of  which  she  has  made  Em- 
pire. Revolt  favoured  her  policy  and  interests  in  this  particu- 
lar, that  it  came  in  the  centre  of  the  interests  of  the  capital- 
istic Powers,  her  natural  antagonists,  disconcerting  them  and 
absorbing  their  attention.  It  placed  her  in  a  position  to  be 
of  service  to  them,  leaving  her  free  to  promote  her  own  inter- 
ests and  policies.  I  have  never  seen  these  explained.  They 
are  essential  to  the  elucidation  of  Japan's  diplomacy  with 
respect  to  the  Republic  of  China  and  are  as  follows : 

Two  great  Russian  and  Japanese  railways  traverse  Man- 
churia, one  the  whole  distance  east  and  west,  the  other  the 
whole  length  north  and  south.  Together  they  form  a  matrix 
conveying  Russian  and  Japanese  sovereignty  to  all  Man- 
churia's vital  parts. 

When  the  Portsmouth  Treaty  was  signed  in  New  Hamp- 
shire [September,  1905],  it  became  the  immediate  business  of 
Japan  and  Russia,  between  whom  these  railways  were  divided, 
to  keep  apart.  With  their  usual  alertness  the  Japanese  were 
foremost  in  this  problem.  Before  Mr.  Komura,  Japanese 
Peace  Commissioner,  left  America  for  Japan,  Marquis  Ito  at 
Tokio  jumped  to  the  solution  of  this  problem  by  giving  Ed- 
ward H.  Harriman,  the  American  financier  and  promoter,  a 
tentative  agreement  for  lease  to  American  financiers  of  Japan's 
railway  in  Manchuria,  taken  from  Russia.  This  would  have 
placed  America  between  Russia  and  Japan.  It  would  have 

326 


JAPAN,    AMERICA,    AND    REVOLUTION 

solved,  in  a  manner,  the  question  of  non-entanglement  with 
Russia,  so  far  as  Japan  was  concerned.  Marquis  Ito  believed 
Japan  could  not  hold  her  Manchurian  territories;  he  thought 
Japan  was  moving  beyond  her  depth. 

Immediately  after  the  exchange  of  this  tentative  agreement, 
Komura  arrived  in  Tokio.  From  thence  date  two  Japans,  the 
passing  one,  that  of  Ito,  the  oncoming,  that  of  Komura.  Ko- 
mura said  Japan  must  expand  on  the  continent  in  China.  This 
expansion  had  sufficient  political  basis  only  in  the  rights  which 
Japan  had  acquired  from  Russia  by  coming  into  possession  of 
a  share  of  her  railways  in  Manchuria.  Japan  could  not  turn 
her  railway  over  to  others.  She  must  cling  to  all  she  had  ac- 
quired in  order  that  she  might  share  all  the  rights,  advantages, 
and  opportunities  claimed  by  Russia.  Russia  must  be  sup- 
ported and  made  to  cling  to  all  she  held  and  claimed  in  Man- 
churia, and  on  the  whole  Chinese  frontier,  so  as  to  safeguard 
this  basis  for  Japan's  continental  expansion. 

Japan  thereupon  abandoned  the  Ito-Harriman  agreement 
and  found  in  her  Manchurian  railway  a  bond  of  union  and 
not  a  breach  with  Russia.  The  facts  and  circumstances  are 
these : 

Komura  met  diplomatic  defeat  at  Portsmouth  in  failing 
to  secure  a  war  indemnity  which  the  people  of  Japan  de- 
manded as  a  condition  of  peace  with  Russia.  But  he  secured 
the  insertion  in  the  secret  minutes  of  the  Portsmouth  Treaty, 
the  obligation  on  the  part  of  Russia  [as  a  part  of  the  transfer 
of  the  railway]  to  communicate  to  Japan  upon  ratification  of 
the  Treaty,  all  agreements  which  she  had  with  China  respect- 
ing Manchuria.  When  the  transfer  of  these  agreements  took 
place,  it  was  found  that  the  contract  for  the  construction  of 
the  Chinese-Eastern  Railway  [the  east  and  west  line],  1896, 
contained  a  clause  known  as  "Article  6"  which  gave  to  Russia 
the  "sole  and  exclusive  right  of  administration  in  the  railway 
zone." 

Komura  saw,  as  well  as  did  a  majority  of  the  Emperor's 
advisers,  that  if  this  article  could  be  appropriated  for  effect 
on  the  Japanese  railways,  and  recognised  by  Russia,  it  was  in 
effect  a  division  of  China's  sovereignty  among  China,  Russia, 

327 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

and  Japan,  in  Manchuria.  This  fact,  joined  to  the  fact  that 
Russia's  special  frontier  trade  rights  were  capable  of  similar 
extension  so  as  to  benefit  Japan,  gave  to  Japan  her  present 
"plan  of  state"  upon  which  Greater  Japan  rests. 

Japan  now  had  new  statesmen,  who  saw  that  Russia  and 
Japan  possessed  and  could  maintain  a  special  position  in 
Northern  China,  doubtless  in  spite  of  all  opposition.  Japan's 
problem  was  to  bring  about  a  written  tie  between  Russia  and 
Japan  as  against  a  separation,  which  the  ideas  and  policy  of 
Ito  involved.  She  passed,  in  her  policy,  to  the  Komura,  or 
so-called  Katsura,  or  "war  party,"  which  in  fact  was  noth- 
ing more  than  a  Greater  Japan  party,  whose  programme  for 
some  time  necessitated  peace. 

It  took  four  years  for  Komura  to  bring  about  an  entente 
and  agreement  with  Russia,  which,  after  many  vicissitudes, 
was  obtained  July  4,  1910.  Japan's  aim  was  thus  attained 
by  a  compact  to  maintain  the  status  quo  in  Manchuria,  which 
no  Power  has  yet  essayed  directly  to  disturb,  and  which  com- 
pact she  has  bound  three  Powers  to  maintain.  The  story  of 
this  four  years  for  Japan  is  one  of  diplomatic  pursuit  of  Rus- 
sia, and  is  one  of  the  most  curiously  interesting  in  the  annals 
of  diplomacy.  Suffice  to  say,  Russia  evaded  Japan's  pursuit 
until  forced  by  circumstances  to  accept  the  terms  of  the  situa- 
tion as  viewed  by  Japan. 

During  this,  in  the  main  subterranean  struggle,  Russia 
learned  of  the  Ito-Harriman  agreement,  and  essayed  to  imitate 
Ito's  success  in  getting  American  finance  into  Manchuria. 
She  offered  her  own  railway  in  Wall  Street  in  order  to  her- 
self bring  America  between  Russia  and  Japan.  She  failed, 
with  some  expense  to  her  pride.  Russia's  evasion  of  Japan 
in  this  issue  was  due  to  fear  of  the  consequences  of  Japanese 
invasion  of  Northern  Manchuria,  and  close  contact  with 
Japan,  and  her  actions  in  the  empire-hunt,  going  on,  showed 
that  she  was  sparring  for  time. 

It  was  not  long  before  Japan,  then,  discovered  Russia's 
intentions  respecting  the  Russian  railway  in  Manchuria. 
These  were  in  effect  the  annulment  of  "Article  6"  by  trans- 
fer of  her  railway  to  a  country,  America,  that  would  interpret 

328 


JAPAN,    AMERICA,    AND    REVOLUTION 

its  provisions  in  a  manner  favourable  to  Chinese  sovereignty. 
This  would  prevent  any  wholesale  exercise  of  Japanese  sover- 
eignty in  Manchuria,  and  the  wholesale  extension  of  Japanese 
settlement  there. 

The  success  of  Russia's  intention  was  the  greatest  blow 
which  Russia  could  direct  at  Japan's  "plan  of  state."  In  con- 
sequence Japan  did  everything  to  prevent  it.  In  1908,  after 
repeated  failures  to  open  negotiations  with  Russia  on  the  sub- 
ject, Japan  sent  Baron  Goto  to  St.  Petersburg,  and  another 
officer  to  Harbin,  with  a  view  to  opening  negotiations.  Russia 
refused  to  be  engaged.  In  1909  Japan  tried,  through  her 
Ambassador,  Motono,  to  bring  the  matter  up  again  at  St. 
Petersburg  and  failed.  Russia's  situation  from  that  point  on 
was  one  of  acute  embarrassment.  Japan  invoked  the  compli- 
cated and  almost  omniscient  weapons  of  the  doctrine  of  equal 
rights  against  Russia,  and  with  China's  consent  succeeded 
in  pushing  Japanese  commerce  and  communications  to  the 
Amur  River  by  way  of  its  Manchurian  tributaries,  invading 
Russia's  exclusive  trade  zone. 

Russia  was  literally  forced  along  by  Japan.  At  the  same 
time  Russia  employed  every  means  to  dispose  of  her  railway, 
and  what  Russia  would  do  in  this  respect  was  in  1908-1909  a 
burning  question  in  Tokio.  Fearful  that  Russia  would  give 
up  the  principle  of  administration  in  the  railway  zone,  which 
at  that  time  became  an  issue  with  all  the  Powers,  Japan  sent 
Marquis  Ito  to  Russian  Manchuria  to  meet  the  Russian  Min- 
ister of  Finance,  Kokovtseff  [later  Russian  Premier].  This 
is  a  strange  story.  Ito  was  assassinated  before  he  had  intro- 
duced at  Harbin  the  object  of  his  mission. 

Ito  was  opposed  to  expansion  until  Japan  could  recuperate 
from  the  effects  of  the  war  with  Russia.  Almost  to  the  last, 
as  is  well  known,  he  denied  that  Japan  would  annex  Korea, 
believing  that  his  advice  and  that  of  his  associates  would  pre- 
vail with  the  Emperor.  He  was  now  a  changed  statesman. 
Japan  had  a  new  spirit,  and  he  was  on  an  errand  for  his  late 
opponents.  This  is  the  great  story  of  Ito's  last  days  and  of 
his  assassination  and  of  Japan's  influence  and  future  in  China. 
He  became  the  martyr  to  the  new  Japan's  ambitions  upon  the 

329 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

continent  of  Asia.  It  was  strangely  fitting,  strange  as  life 
itself,  that  he  should,  after  being  defeated  in  his  own  plan  of 
state,  lend  a  hand  to  that  of  his  political  adversaries  and  lose 
his  life  in  behalf  of  their  policies. 

Ito's  death  saved  Russia  from  one  more  embarrassment 
of  proffered  negotiations,  and  events  followed  that  further 
delayed  the  inevitable  rapprochement  and  compact  with  Japan. 
America  was  observing  this  drama,  and,  unable  to  promote 
singly  the  policies  of  these  two  contending  Powers,  devised  a 
plan  to  meet  general  necessities  in  Manchuria;  not  only  of 
China  and  Russia,  but  of  what  she  considered  the  best  inter- 
ests of  Japan.  This  was  the  famous  "neutralisation  proposal." 
The  Government  at  Washington  proposed  the  purchase  and 
neutralisation  of  both  the  Japanese  and  Russian  railways  in 
Manchuria  by  the  Powers.  This  proposal  forced  Russia  to 
face  the  issue  of  a  division  of  China's  sovereignty  in  Man- 
churia, an  issue  which  was  so  complicated  by  formal  represen- 
tations and  opposition  of  the  United  States,  Great  Britain, 
France,  and  Germany,  that  Russia  was  isolated,  and  seeing 
no  friendly  hand  held  out  to  her  but  that  of  Japan,  she  ac- 
cepted it.  Fearing  the  consequences  from  Japan  of  abandon- 
ing "Article  6,"  and  expecting  more  from  its  permanency 
under  the  Japanese  than  by  any  other  plan  at  command  for 
disposing  of  the  question,  she  signed  with  Japan,  July  4,  1910, 
as  stated,  an  agreement  to  maintain  it.  Japan  thus  established 
what  she  had  set  out  to  establish,  the  corner-stone  of  her  em- 
pire in  China,  that  of  special  right. 

Much  paper  has  been  written  over  by  Japan  and  all  the 
great  European  Powers,  and  America,  setting  up  the  princi- 
ples of  territorial  integrity  and  sdvereignty  of  China  and  equal 
rights  among  the  Powers.  It  is  generally  believed  that  these 
papers  are  the  guarantee  of  these  principles.  But  one  of  the 
great  facts  brought  out  by  the  revolutionary  Rebellion  is  the 
special  position  which  Japan  has  made  for  herself,  both  terri- 
torially and  diplomatically,  within  the  borders  of  China.  She 
now  bulks  with  immense  size  in  the  drama  being  enacted  be- 
tween Nanking  and  Peking.  She  has  entered  the  revolution- 
ary era  in  China,  having  firmly  set  up  the  principle  of  a 

330 


JAPAN,    AMERICA,    AND    REVOLUTION 

division  of  China's  sovereignty.  With  fine  contempt  she  went 
to  war  to  demolish  it  when  it  was  merely  a  Russian  assump- 
tion She  then  set  it  up  again  not  as  a  Japanese  assumption, 
nor  as  a  Japanese-Russian  assumption,  but  by  a  Japanese- 
Russian  compact  contained  in  a  preliminary  exchange  of  notes 
and  in  a  formal  convention. 

To  anyone  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  the  machinery 
of  a  nation's  expansion,  and  especially  of  the  nature  of  the 
machinery  of  Japanese  expansion,  which  Japan's  statesmen 
themselves  cannot  control,  there  is  no  obstacle  to  understand- 
ing her  anxiety  to  miss  no  opportunity  for  expansion  offered 
by  the  internal  differences  in  China. 

Japan  must  now  be  kagues  ahead  of  other  nations  in  ap- 
preciation of,  and  interest  in,  the  Chinese  Revolution,  and  of 
its  responsibilities  and  opportunities.  In  her  vital  position 
she  is  obliged  to  be  right  respecting  all  her  responsibilities  to 
herself  and  her  opportunities.  There  is  no  compact  as  to 
policy  and  action  made  with  any  Power,  which  will  ever 
justify  her  in  missing  the  main  chance  and  missing  enacting 
the  main  role,  such  as  she  had  already  attained  in  the  Quad- 
ruple Group  alliance  when  the  revolutionary  Rebellion  broke. 
The  strengthening  and  guaranteeing  of  Japan's  special  rights 
in  China,  to  which  three  other  Powers  are  pledged,  depend 
upon  still  further  special  advantages  of  position. 

Special  positions  and  special  rights  are  the  outcome  of 
special  circumstances.  The  internal  differences  in  China,  such 
as  existed  between  Republic  and  Empire,  Premier  and  Presi- 
dent, was  an  opportunity  that  had  not  existed  in  China  since 
1644,  when  the  Manchus  turned  it  to  account.  The  necessity 
of  being  alert  to  any  opportunities  that  might  present  them- 
selves at  Peking  or  Nanking  was  thoroughly  understood  at 
Tokio,  which  had  augmented  its  military  in  Manchuria,  where 
was  centred  all  the  machinery  of  Japanese  expansion  work- 
ing on  a  problem  more  complicated  than  that  which  Dorgon 
the  Manchu  regent  solved  by  merely  taking  his  army  to  Shan- 
hai-kuan  and  on  to  Peking.  That  feat  could  not  be  repeated. 

Japan's  declarations  to  the  world  at  this  time  are  that  she 
is  jiot  prepared  to  recognise  the  Republic  at  present,  that 

331 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

China's  territorial  integrity  should  still  be  maintained,  and 
that  Japan  does  not  contemplate  intervention  concerning  the 
form  that  the  government  in  China  should  take  [January  26, 
1912]. 

January  27,  Marquis  Saionji,  the  Premier,  makes  the  state- 
ment that  "Japan  has  followed  one  and  the  same  policy  toward 
China  ever  since  the  outbreak  of  the  Rebellion.  It  is  the  ob- 
servance of  strict  neutrality.  The  Cabinet  is  exerting  all  its 
efforts  to  maintain  the  territorial  integrity  of  China."  In  all 
of  these  statements  there  is  nothing  to  complicate  or  interfere 
with  any  designs  that  may  be  worked  out  for  acquiring  a 
special  position  or  right  with  the  side  that  shall  come  out 
uppermost  in  China.  Japan's  position  as  an  opportunist  is 
now  giving  anxiety  in  the  Diet,  because  with  all  her  oppor- 
tunities Japan  threatens  to  fall  between  two  stools.  January 
27,  Mr.  Oishi,  member  of  the  Lower  House,  expressed  these 
apprehensions  in  the  following  criticisms : 

"The  Japanese  policy  of  administration  is  shifting.  Prob- 
ably no  other  question  is  so  vital  to  Japan  as  the  civil  war  in 
China,  but  our  Government  has  no  definite  policy  to  follow. 
This  indecisive  attitude  of  Japan  is  illustrated  by  the  fact 
that  there  are  many  Japanese  in  both  the  revolutionary  and 
Imperial  armies.  Hence  the  Chinese  people  have  regarded  us 
with  suspicious  eyes.  Tokio  once  lent  its  countenance  to  Pe- 
king [Ijuin's  statements  at  Peking],  but  yet  claims  that  it  hag 
been  strictly  neutral.  One  thing  more :  What  is  the  cause  of 
the  reported  dispatch  of  another  army  to  China?  [referred  to 
by  the  Nanking  Republican  member  quoted].  Such  will 
only  make  both  Peking  and  Nanking  uneasy  and  lead  them 
to  doubt  whether  we  do  not  entertain  some  ulterior  mo- 
tives." 

There  was  little  prospect  for  Japan  of  obtaining  any  special 
position  at  Peking  so  long  as  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  Japan's  tradi- 
tional enemy,  was  Premier  and  had  the  Throne  in  his  hands. 
Although  the  Japanese  Administration  at  Tokio  had  supported 
the  Dynasty  almost  throughout, — pleased  to  find  itself  on  the 
same  side  with  Yuan  Shih-k'ai, — such  a  consideration  was 
sufficient,  when  the  fortunes  of  the  Republic  rolled  higher 

332 


JAPAN,    AMERICA,    AND    REVOLUTION 

than  ever,  to  suggest  to  the  Japanese  that  it  would  be  more 
profitable  to  look  to  Nanking. 

When  the  Throne  abdicated  and  all  chances  at  Peking  and 
Nanking  were  lost  in  the  unity  of  the  North  and  South, 
the  Japanese  expressed  their  disappointment,  and  their  reali- 
sation that  the  question  in  China  had  resolved  back  into 
its  fundamental  elements.  At  a  dinner  at  Mukden  given 
by  Viceroy  Chao  Er-hsun,  a  Japanese  speaking  for  the 
representatives  of  the  Japanese  Government  said  to  the 
Viceroy : 

"Is  it  not  a  pity  that  the  Dynasty,  that  is  so  ancient  and  has 
been  so  great,  should  be  ignominiously  discarded  in  this  way  ? 
Events  have  moved  so  rapidly  that  Japan  did  not  know  fully 
just  what  they  meant.  Had  she  another  opportunity,  she 
would  come  to  the  aid  of  the  Throne  for  the  preservation  of 
the  Dynasty." 

It  is  apparent  that  Japan  has  little  to  expect  of  a  voluntary 
nature  from  the  Republic.  With  respect  to  it,  as  to  the  Em- 
pire, all  questions  end  in  Manchuria,  the  base  of  operations 
for  Japan,  long  ago  pointed  out  by  the  Germans  as  the  base 
for  conquering  Asia.  Here,  too,  the  situation  is  fully  under- 
stood by  the  Chinese.  Viceroy  Chao  Er-hsun  in  a  speech  that 
may  be  taken  as  a  reply  to  his  Japanese  guests  warned  the 
influential  Chinese  that  if  there  was  trouble  at  Mukden,  "JaPan 
would  occupy  the  City  in  six  hours." 

February  u,  1912,  the  day  before  abdication  of  the  Man- 
chus,  the  Revolutionists  referred  to  by  the  Nanking  Republi- 
can member  as  fighting  in  neutral  territory  in  Manchuria  with 
Japanese  consent,  were  reported  by  the  Japanese  news  service 
as  "continuing  victorious."  It  was  not  until  February  14, 
1912,  that  the  Japanese  Governor-General  at  Port  Arthur  or- 
dered two  battalions  to  restore  neutrality  in  Manchuria.  Japan 
then  welcomed  the  Republican  leaders  to  Southern  Manchuria 
and  escorted  them  to  take  over  its  various  cities. 

The  Republican  Government  at  Nanking  is  wise  enough 
to  know  that  there  are  plenty  of  interested  persons  and  Pow- 
ers awaiting  an  opportunity  to  take  advantage  of  China  in 
her  dissensions,  which  game  has  a  longer  consecutive  history 

333 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

in  China  than  any  place  in  the  world.  Japan  being  to  them 
the  primary  enemy,  as  she  is  the  first  and  most  formidable 
opponent,  the  question  at  Nanking  therefore  is :  Have  we  done 
with  Japan?  Is  there  any  chance  for  surprise? 


CHAPTER  XXXII 
UNITING  THE   REPUBLIC   AND   EMPIRE 

FEBRUARY  12,  1912,  brings  the  vital  moment  in  the 
question  of  the  future  form  of  China's  government  and 
the  complete  success  of  the  Republic.  Simultaneous 
with  the  arrival  of  the  abdication  edict  at  Nanking  the  Re- 
publican Government  receives  a  communication  from  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai.  "That  the  republican  form  of  government  is  the 
best  is  admitted  by  all  the  world,"  says  he.  "At  one  bound, 
the  goal  at  which  you  gentlemen  have  been  aiming  through 
years  of  thoughtful  labour,  namely,  the  transformation  of  the 
Imperial  Government,  has  now  been  reached.  This  augurs 
blessings  and  happiness  for  the  people  also.  Since  the  Ta 
Ching  Emperor  has  abdicated  by  the  issue  of  an  explicit  De- 
cree, which  has  been  published  by  me,  then  the  day  on  which 
it  is  issued  is  the  end  of  Imperial  Government  and  the  begin- 
ning of  the  foundation  of  a  Republic ;  and  if  you  gentlemen 
will  make  an  effort,  you  should  assuredly  gain  a  position  of 
the  highest  satisfaction,  never  permitting  a  monarchical  gov- 
ernment to  regain  a  foothold  in  China. 

"Now,  as  the  formation  of  a  union  is  of  great  consequence, 
beset  with  difficulties,  I  earnestly  wish  to  come  Southward, 
to  listen  to  your  advice,  to  my  heart's  content,  and  together 
with  you  to  plan  methods  of  progress.  But  the  maintenance 
of  order  in  the  North  is  not  easily  secured.  The  divisions 
of  forces  here  are  a  forest  in  numbers,  which  must  be  cared 
and  tended;  while  popular  inclinations  in  the  north-east  [Mon- 
golia and  Manchuria]  are  not  yet  unanimous.  The  least 
shock  may  affect  the  whole.  You,  gentlemen,  being  all  quite 
conversant  with  the  present  situation,  can  certainly  understand 
this,  my  delicate  position.  As  to  the  more  important  and 
weighty  questions  in  connection  with  the  formation  of  a  Re- 
public, you  gentlemen  have  been  accustomed  to  study  them, 

3.35 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

and  must  have  formed  your  opinion  in  your  mind's  eye. 
It  is  requested  that  the  proposed  methods  for  the  formation 
of  a  union  should  be  speedily  sent  to  me." 

The  caution  of  the  Republican  Government  due  to  fear 
of  a  surprise  is  expressed  in  the  reply  of  President  Sun 
Yat-sen  February  13,  1912. 

"After  the  receipt  of  your  unofficial  news  of  abdication 
from  Tang  Shao-yi,"  says  he,  "Tang  telegraphed  to  me  that 
the  Ching  Emperor  has  abdicated  and  that  you  will  support' 
the  Republic.  The  settlement  of  this  great  question  is  a  mat- 
ter of  the  utmost  joy  and  congratulation.  I  will  report  to 
the  National  Assembly  that  I  agree  to  resign  the  office  of 
President  in  your  favour.  But  the  Republican  Government 
cannot  be  organised  by  any  authority  conferred  by  the  Ching 
Emperor.  The  exercise  of  such  pretentious  power  will 
surely  lead  to  serious  trouble.  As  you  clearly  understand  the 
needs  of  the  situation,  certainly  you  will  not  accept  such  au- 
thority. I  cordially  invite  you  to  come  to  Nanking  and  fulfil 
the  expectations  of  all.  Should  you  be  anxious  about  the 
maintenance  of  order  in  the  North,  would  you  inform  the 
Provisional  Government  by  telegraph  whom  you  could  recom- 
mend to  be  appointed  with  full  powers  to  act  in  your  place  as 
the  representative  of  the  Republic?" 

The  fact  of  the  abdication  is  admitted  at  Nanking  and 
Shanghai  to  be  a  great  achievement.  Wu  Ting-fang  and 
Tang  Shao-yi  proceed  to  Nanking  to  participate  in  the  cere- 
monies preceding  the  election  of  the  new  Provisional  Presi- 
dent for  the  unity  of  the  country.  Of  the  heads  and  ministers 
of  the  Provisional  Government  only  Li  Yuan-hung,  Vice- 
President  and  the  senior  of  the  great  triumvirate,  is  absent. 
He  continues  to  bear  alone  the  responsibilities  at  the  territorial 
and  industrial  centre  of  Greater  China,  at  Wuchang. 

"To-day,"  says  President  Sun  Yat-sen  in  a  letter  to  the 
Nanking  Assembly,  "I  present  to  you  my  resignation  and 
request  you  to  elect  a  good  and  competent  man  as  the  new 
President.  The  election  of  the  President  is  a  right  of  our 
citizens  and  it  is  not  for  me  to  interfere  in  any  way.  But 
according  to  the  telegram  which  our  delegate  Dr.  Wu  [Wu 

336 


UNITING   THE    REPUBLIC   AND   EMPIRE 

Ting- fang]  was  directed  to  send  to  Peking,  I  was  to  under- 
take to  resign  in  favour  of  Mr.  Yuan  [Yuan  Shih-k'ai]  when 
the  Emperor  had  abdicated  and  Mr.  Yuan  had  declared  his 
political  views  in  support  of  the  Republic.  I  have  already 
submitted  this  to  your  honourable  Assembly  and  obtained 
your  approval.  The  abdication  of  the  Ching  Emperor  and  the 
union  of  the  North  and  South  are  largely  due  to  the  great 
exertions  of  Mr.  Yuan.  Moreover,  he  has  declared  his  un- 
conditional adhesion  to  the  national  cause.  Should  he  be 
elected  to  serve  the  Republic,  he  would  surely  prove  himself 
a  most  loyal  servant  of  the  State.  Besides,  Mr.  Yuan  is  a 
man  of  political  experience,  upon  whose  constructive  ability 
our  united  nation  looks  forward  for  the  consolidation  of  its 
interests.  Therefore,  I  venture  to  express  my  personal  opin- 
ion, and  to  invite  your  honourable  Assembly  carefully  to  con- 
sider the  future  welfare  of  the  State,  and  not  to  miss  the 
opportunity  of  electing  one  who  is  worthy  of  your  election. 
The  happiness  of  our  country  depends  upon  your  choice. 
Farewell." 

It  sounds  like  Washington. 

February  14,  3  P.M.,  President  Sun  Yat-sen  and  his  Cab- 
inet proceed  to  the  Assembly  Hall  and  formally  tender  their 
resignations,  and  recommend  the  election  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
as  President  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  President's 
letter  of  the  day  before.  The  Assembly  proceeds  formally 
with  the  prearranged  programme,  accepting  the  resignations 
with  the  provision  that  the  President,  Sun  Yat-sen,  and  his 
Cabinet  continue  to  discharge  their  functions  until  the  suc- 
ceeding President  and  Cabinet  assume  office,  and  fixing  upon 
the  following  day  at  2  P.M.  for  the  election  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai. 
President  Sun  Yat-sen's  appearance  in  the  Assembly  Hall, 
after  his  letter,  is  the  signal  for  eulogy  by  the  Chairman,  on 
the  servites  which  he  has  rendered  to  the  country.  As  a 
verbal  tribute  to  the  President  the  Chairman  says  that  his 
services  are  such  an  example  of  self-sacrifice  and  purity  of 
purpose  as  is  unparalleled  in  history,  and  it  is  solely  due  to 
his  magnanimity  and  modesty  that  the  North  has  been  won. 

February  15,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  formally  and  unanimously 

337 


elected  President  of  the  Republic  of  China  by  representatives 
of  seventeen  provinces  constituting  the  Nanking  Assembly. 
It  is  announced  that  the  election  is  unanimous,  which  con- 
nects it  with  the  election  of  Washington. 

The  solemnity  of  President  Sun  Yat-sen's  farewell  is  con- 
tinued in  his  reverences  to  the  spirits  of  the  last  Chinese 
emperors,  carried  out  amid  the  ruins  of  the  tomb  of  Hung 
Wu,  the  founder  of  the  last  Chinese  Dynasty,  on  the  southern 
slope  of  Purple  Hill.  He  stands  before  the  large  Imperial 
tablet  bearing  in  letters  of  gold  these  words :  "The  Throne 
of  his  Imperial  Majesty,  Great  Founder  of  the  Ming  Dy- 
nasty." Beyond,  to  the  back  of  the  tablet,  is  suspended  a 
Chinese  water-colour  portrait  of  the  founder.  Immediately 
in  front  of  the  tablet,  on  the  sacrificial  table  supporting  it,  an 
incense  burner  gives  forth  wreaths  of  aromatic  smoke.  A 
large  red  candle  burns,  one  on  either  side. 

The  master  of  ceremonies  announces  that  the  President 
of  the  Chinese  Republic  has  come  to  present  his  respects  to 
the  great  founder  of  the  Chinese  destroyed  Dynasty.  The 
President,  his  staff,  and  all  present  uncover  and  make  three 
profound  bows  before  the  tablet.  A  secretary  reads  the 
President's  announcement  to  the  spirit  of  the  great  Chinese 
hero,  the  founder  of  the  Ming  Dynasty,  and  to  the  spirits  of 
the  departed  ancestors  of  the  Chinese  nation,  the  establish- 
ment of  a  free  Republic  and  the  annihilation  of  the  power  and 
prestige  of  the  national  enemy. 

Turning  about  and  pausing  for  a  moment,  President  Sun 
Yat-sen  addresses  the  people  and  soldiers.  He  explains 
briefly  how  after  260  odd  years  the  nation  has  again  recovered 
freedom,  and  now  that  the  curse  of  a  Manchu  domination  is 
removed,  the  free  peoples  of  a  united  Republic  can  pursue  un- 
hampered their  rightful  aspirations.  He  prophesies  that  a 
united  and  free  China  must  enjoy  glory  and  prosperity. 
Cheers  follow,  taken  up  by  those  outside  the  enclosures  and 
carried  miles  away  along  the  road  to  the  City  and  finally 
lost'  in  the  sound  of  distant  guns. 

Quietly  departing,  the  President  returns  to  the  Republican 
"White  House/,',  where  he  holds  a  reception  for  members 

338 


i  * 


U 


UNITING    THE    REPUBLIC   AND   EMPIRE 

of  the  Government  and  representatives  of  the  army,  navy,  and 
people.  In  response  to  the  ovation  from  the  crowds,  Sun  Yat- 
sen  says : 

"This  is  the  day  of  joy  for  all.  It  is  the  greatest  day 
in  our  history.  After  so  many  hundred  years  of  struggle 
against  misrule,  we  are  now  free  to  consolidate  our  nationality 
by  the  union  of  all  the  peoples  into  one  great  Republic.  This 
is  a  welding  of  the  North  and  South.  The  abdication  of  the 
Ching  Emperor  means  a  complete  recovery  of  liberty.  Now 
we  can  begin  the  work  of  national  construction  and  consoli- 
dation. The  enthusiasm  of  the  South  spread  rapidly  every- 
where ;  a  small  section  in  the  North  resisted,  but  in  the  end 
completely  yielded  to  the  will  of  the  nation. 

"Conformably  with  my  oath,  I  have  resigned,  and  the 
National  Assembly  has  elected  Mr.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  as  the 
new  President,  on  my  recommendation.  As  Nanking  is  to 
be  the  Capital,  we  have  invited  Mr.  Yuan  to  come  South 
and  assume  his  duties.  His  coming  is  the  embodiment  of 
the  union  of  the  North  and  the  South.  Although  at  first  the 
North  demanded  a  dissolution  of  the  Provisional  Government 
and  the  formation  of  the  new  Government  at  Peking,  we  have 
firmly  pointed  out  the  importance  of  maintaining  the  Provi- 
sional Government  at  Nanking. 

"Mr.  Yuan  has  given  his  adhesion  to  our  cause,  and  is 
at  one  with  us  regarding  our  aspirations — the  development 
of  our  resources  and  the  consolidation  of  our  interests.  He 
was  our  opponent  yesterday,  but  to-day  he  is  our  friend. 
When  he  comes,  he  will  receive  the  welcome  of  the  unite'd 
people.  His  visit  will  be  a  family  reunion.  On  behalf  of 
the  Provisional  Government,  I  extend  to  him  an  unanimous 
welcome  and  voice  the  feelings  of  the  Provisional  Assembly 
and  the  people.  Through  him  all  conflicting  interests  will  be 
united.  Should  he  not  come  or  should  he  be  unwilling  to 
come,  it  might  be  because  he  does  not  rely  upon  our  expres- 
sions of  sincerity.  This  would  be  a  disappointment  to  us. 
But  I  think  he  will  come,  because  he  has  at  heart  the  desire 
to  bring  about  peace  and  concord  for  our  nation. 

339 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

"I  wish  that  a  lasting  peace  will  be  established  between 
the  South  and  the  North.  When  I  return  to  private  life,  I 
shall  be  a  citizen  as  one  of  you  and  shall  try  to  forward 
the  best  interests  of  the  Republic  to  the  utmost  of  my  power. 
Long  live  the  Republic!" 

The  Republican  Government  at  Nanking  devises  a  depu- 
tation, that  shall  be  headed  by  Tang  Shao-yi,  for  the  purpose 
of  bringing  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  to  Nanking.  President  Sun  Yat- 
sen  is  determined  that  Nanking  shall  be  the  Capital  and  with 
almost  a  pathetic  tenacity  adheres  to  that  determination. 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  who  sees  the  impossibility  of  a  change  of  the 
Capital  from  Peking,  relies  upon  time  to  modify  Sun  Yat- 
sen's  views,  feeling  that  the  dangers  of  suspense  are  more 
desirable  than  those  of  this  radical  change. 

February  19  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  proclaims  the  adoption  of  the 
Western  calendar  and  notifies  the  Powers  of  his  election,  re- 
questing recognition  for  the  Republic. 

February  20  the  Republican  Government  at  Nanking  elects 
Li  Yuan-hung  Vice-President  and  arranges  a  Republican 
Commission  of  Welcome  under  Tsai  Yuan-pei  to  go  to  Peking 
along  with  Tang  Shao-yi  and  his  suite,  in  accordance  with 
plans  so  near  to  the  heart  of  Sun  Yat-sen.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
then  telegraphs  Sun  Yat-sen  that  he  will  not  discuss  the 
question  of  coming  to  Nanking  until  the  delegates  arrive. 

All  through  Sun  Yat-sen's  speech  of  the  I5th  appeared 
the  vision  of  hope  which  he  entertained  with  respect  to  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai,  now  that  the  great  question  of  the  abdication  and 
unity  of  the  country  was  settled.  As  the  Envoy  Tsai  Yuan- 
pei,  accompanied  by  Tang  Shao-yi,  journeys  northward  the 
military  vigilance  of  the  Republic  is  relaxed  and  troops  are 
being  withdrawn  from  the  North.  The  expedition  to  Pi-tze- 
wo  on  the  border  of  the  neutral  territory  in  Manchuria  is 
completely  withdrawn  to  Chefoo,  and  the  Tientsin-Pukow 
Railway  brings  back  Chekiang  troops  from  North  Anhuei. 

February  27,  1912,  the  Nanking  delegates  together  with 
Tang  Shao-yi  reach  Peking  and  are  given  a  great  ovation 
at  the  railway  station  and  in  the  streets  through  which  they 

340 


UNITING    THE    REPUBLIC   AND   EMPIRE 

march.  At  3  P.M.  President-elect  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  in  uniform 
similar  to  that  worn  by  Sun  Yat-sen,  receives  them  at  his 
yamen,  the  Wai-wu-pu  building.  Representations  respecting 
his  journey  to  Nanking  are  made  by  the  delegates. 

February  29  about  5  P.M.  a  meeting  of  Chinese  soldiers 
occurs  on  the  north-east  of  the  City  outside  the  Ch'i  Hua 
Gate  and  Tung  Chih  Gate,  and  looting  begins. 

One  of  these  gates  then  being  closed  is  forced  by  artillery 
fire,  two  shells  penetrating  a  door. 

The  soldiers  outside  the  Tung  Chih  Gate  begin  to  ex- 
change their  uniforms  for  ordinary  clothes,  in  the  stores  and 
pawn-shops.  One  soldier  tears  his  shoulder-straps  away  and 
drops  them  in  the  hollow  of  a  tree,  where  a  week  later  they 
are  picked  up  by  Captain  Reeves,  American  military  attache, 
and  handed  to  a  young  lady  accompanying  him.  At  7  P.M. 
a  third  shell  sails  away,  to  drop  in  the  compound  of  the 
American  Legation  Guard,  falling  through  a  tent-roof  among 
the  tent-mates.  One  of  the  Guard  officers  is  with  Captain 
Summerling,  the  Second  Secretary  of  Legation,  in  the  latter's 
house. 

"Isn't  that  firing?"  says  Summerling,  who  has  been  an 
army  officer. 

"Only  firecrackers,"  says  the  officer,  thinking  of  the  de- 
ception into  which  the  men  of  the  Guard  are  perpetually  led 
by  the  custom  of  the  Chinese  of  letting  off  firecrackers 
throughout  the  night. 

Pretty  soon  again: 

"I  believe  that's  firing,"  says  Summerling. 

"No,  that's  Chinese  firecrackers,"  says  the  officer  assur- 
ingly. 

Soon  the  bugles  sound,  and  Summerling  stops,  throws 
down  his  cards,  and  says : 

"Isn't  that  the  call  to  arms  ?" 

The  officer  cannot  ignore  this,  and  gets  up.  Both  go  out. 
The  men  of  the  American  Guard  are  in  position  on  the  Wall 
and  have  taken  possession  of  the  tower  on  Ch'ien  Men  and 
of  the  west  end  of  Legation  Street. 

William  J.  Calhoun,  the  American  Minister,  sitting  in  his 

34i 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

library,  receives  a  visit  from  the  Commander  of  the  Guard, 
Major  Russell,  who  stands  at  attention  and  says: 

"I  have  the  honour  to  report  that  a  shell  has  fallen  into 
the  Legation  Guard  compound  and  bullets  are  flying-  over- 
head." 

The  Minister  telephones  the  American  missions.  Plans 
for  getting  in  American  residents  from  the  native  city  are 
made  and  relief  parties  sent  out  for  them.  The  inmates  of 
the  Legation  compound  find  themselves  in  an  atmosphere  of 
mounted  orderlies,  sentries,  and  relief  parties. 

It  is  now  the  dinner  hour,  and  foreigners  throughout  the 
entire  Legation  Quarter  are  gathered  in  groups  discussing 
the  rioting  and  mutiny.  The  turmoil  is  at  first  mistaken  for 
a  great  lantern  parade  which  it  had  been  intended  to  hold  in 
celebration  of  the  arrival  of  Tang  Shao-yi  and  the  Nanking 
delegates.  When  their  guests  from  the  native  city  do  not 
come,  the  groups  in  the  Legation  Quarter  break  up  into  rescue 
parties  to  bring  them  in.  Going  out,  they  find  Legation 
guards  at  the  exits  barricading  these  with  sandbags.  Squads 
of  infantry,  mounted  and  on  foot,  pass  out  en  route  to  the 
missions  and  other  .foreign  premises  to  guard  them. 

Major  Russell  informs  other  Legation  guards  of  the 
artillery  souvenir  which  he  has  received.  All  guards  are 
called  out  and  the  entire  Legation  Quarter  placed  in  a  state 
of  defence.  The  British  mounted  infantry  patrol,  with  the 
Japanese,  for  weeks  together,  have  been  visiting  outposts  all 
over  the  City.  They  now  do  special  outpost  service  for  all 
Legations.  Frederick  Moore  the  correspondent,  going  out 
in  the  evening,  sees  the  Italian  Guard  drawn  up  in  Canal 
Street,  opposite  the  Imperial  City  wall,  not  knowing  what  to 
do  and  without  orders.  He  sees  Colonel  Willoughby,  British 
military  attache,  who  has  been  at  Hankow  and  at  the  taking 
of  Nanking,  come  out  from  the  British  side  of  the  Canal,  and 
says  to  him: 

"Colonel,  can  you  not  give  these  men  some  orders?  They 
ought  to  man  the  wall  here,  open  the  portholes  and  be  ready 
for  action." 

It  proved  unnecessary. 

342 


UNITING   THE    REPUBLIC   AND   EMPIRE 

Captain  Holcomb,  American  language  officer,  passes  the 
open  square  in  front  of  Ch'ien  Men  en  route  to  the  Imperial 
Chinese  Bureau  of  Engraving  and  Printing  in  the  extreme 
south-west  of  the  Chinese  City  to  bring  in  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Hatch,  and  thinks  best  to  leave  the  Tartar  City  by  the  Shun 
Chih  Gate  on  account  of  the  disorders  outside  the  Ch'ien  Men. 
From  inside  the  Shun  Chih  Gate  Dr.  Ferguson's  family  are 
brought  to  the  Legation  Quarter.  By  midnirht  the  Quarter 
is  crowded  with  foreign  refugees  coming  to  their  Legations. 

The  track  of  the  Nanking  delegates  is  marked  by  a  lurid 
line  of  disorder,  flame,  and  death — from  the  railway  station, 
through  the  Ch'ien  Men,  to  the  Nobles'  School  situated  in 
the  heart  of  the  burning  section  between  the  East  Gate  of  the 
Imperial  City  and  the  Wai-wu-pu  building,  yamen  of  the 
President-elect,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  In  this  School  the  Nanking 
delegates  are  caught  in  the  night  (February  29)  by  one  of 
the  numerous  bands  of  plunderers  roaming  the  City.  It  fires 
one  of  the  buildings  in  the  compound.  Tsai  Yuan-pei  and 
his  companions  take  refuge  in  a  court  adjoining  the  premises 
of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  They  mount  to  the  top  of  the  enclosing 
wall,  pass  along  the  comb  of  the  roof  of  one  of  the  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  buildings,  creep  down  the  gable  and  drop  into  a  portico, 
from  which  they  are  rescued  by  the  American  Secretary, 
Robert  Gailey.  They  pass  the  night  on  rugs  laid  on  the  floor 
of  his  drawing-room,  and  later  present  him  with  two  scrolls 
to  commemorate  his  hospitality. 

Another  band  of  looters  and  fire-bugs  operates  near  the 
house  of  Dr.  Morrison,  the  Times  correspondent,  who  watches 
them  at  their  work  busy  as  pirates,  while  smart  foreign  pa- 
trols go  by  bringing  in  foreign  refugees. 

By  10  A.M.,  March  i,  Major  Russell  has  the  Legation 
Street  entrance  toward  the  Ch'ien  Men  barricaded  with  sand- 
bags, reinforced  with  wire  entanglements,  and  defended  by 
machine-guns.  The  American  artillery  is  planted  in  the 
Guard  compound  to  command  the  Chinese  City  approaches 
to  the  Ch'ien  Men.  The  German  guards  occupy  the  Hata 
Gate  on  the  East,  constructing  similar  barricades  to  those 
made  by  the  Americans  on  the  West,  and  preparing  a  similar 

343 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

artillery  defence.  The  French,  Austrians,  Italians,  and 
British  have  that  front  of  the  Quarter  facing  the  rioters  and 
are  ready  for  them. 

Looting  and  burning  has  been  carried  from  the  eastern 
suburbs  to  the  East  Gate  of  the  Imperial  City,  where  in  an 
area  half  a  mile  square  there  is  a  great  conflagration.  The 
lawlessness  reaches  to  the  yamen  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  the 
Wai-wu-pu  building.  1900  lives  again.  The  number  of  muti- 
nous troops  plundering  the  City  and  carrying  the  rabble  with 
them  is  unknown. 

Mutineers  fire  fusillades  to  intimidate  the  inmates  of  the 
shops,  then  burst  through  the  doors.  Gathering  up  blankets 
and  silks,  they  rush  into  pawn-shops,  art  and  curio  shops,  and 
the  shops  of  the  gold  and  silver  workers,  and  later  emerge 
staggering  under  their  burdens  of  plunder.  Hundreds  of 
houses  are  plundered,  but  only  articles  of  greatest  value  taken. 
Like  in  1900,  first  levies  are  cast  aside  to  give  place  to  better 
values.  Several  dead  and  wounded  are  lying  in  the  streets. 
Here  and  there  a  shop-keeper  who  hesitates  to  disgorge  is 
killed. 

The  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  has  distributed  taels 
300,000  to  soldiers  of  the  Imperial  Guard  to  keep  them  loyal. 
A  rich  family  has  paid  taels  16,000  to  the  mutineers  for  im- 
munity. Another  has  paid  taels  8,000.  Soldiers  break  down 
the  gates  and  loot  the  mansion  of  Kuei  Hsiang,  brother  of 
the  late  Empress  Grand  Dowager.  The  East  Gate  of  the 
Imperial  City  is  burned,  and  the  Imperial  Guards  construct 
two  lines  of  barricades  to  protect  the  East  Gate  of  the  For- 
bidden City.  Sixty  people  loot  a  Manchu  family  in  the  Im- 
perial City.  Twenty  of  them  are  soldiers,  and  the  others 
probably  neighbours.  Some  of  the  latter  lead  the  soldiers 
to  the  place,  which  is  plundered  and  the  family  driven  out. 
Later,  the  family  regains  its  premises  and  fortifies  them  with 
a  machine-gun. 

By  evening,  fires  are  started  in  the  Great  Street  of  the 
Chinese  City  outside  the  Ch'ien  Men. 

"With  a  mounted  detachment  of  marines  we  brought  in 
the  Hatches  from  the  Southern  City  to-night,"  said  Captain 

344 


UNITING   THE    REPUBLIC    AND   EMPIRE 

Holcomb.  "As  we  crossed  in  front  of  the  Ch'ien  Men  and 
looked  out  through  the  Middle  Gate  that  had  been  opened  for 
the  Nanking  delegates  to  enter  some  days  before,  the  flames 
from  some  great  shops  burning  outside  rolling  up  and  filling 
it  made  it  look  like  the  gate  to  hell,  giving  an  impression  never 
to  be  forgotten."  "Went  to  see  Commander  Gillis  after  din- 
ner," he  continues,  "and  later  watched  the  looting  from  the 
Shun  Chih  Gate,  and  then  stood  with  a  companion  on  the 
Ch'ien  Men  semi-lune  wall  and  heard  the  wild  destruction 
outside.  There  was  in  one  moment  pounding  and  the  fall  of 
crashing  glass,  a  single  shot,  and  all  was  then  still.  Perhaps  it 
was  an  incident  in  the  Silver  Workers'  Street  to  the  right, 
where  gates  barred  each  end,  and  the  silver  workers  had 
strong  guards. 

An  American  soldier  for  days  told  a  story  of  his  adven- 
tures there.  He  said  himself  and  a  companion  were  outside 
when  the  main  gates  were  closed,  and  couldn't  get  back  to 
barracks.  Himself  and  companion  ran  into  a  side  street  and 
were  pursued  by  Chinese  guards,  who  fired  in  their  direction, 
killing  a  Chinese.  Both  Americans  finally  made  a  safe  re- 
turn. 

Soldiers  of  the  Legation  Guards  on  top  of  the  City  wall 
are  silhouetted  against  the  light  of  the  flaming  sky  of  the 
Chinese  City.  The  light  flares  over  the  golden-tiled  roofs  of 
the  Forbidden  City  and  throws  a  glare  upon  thousands  of 
people  in  the  streets,  and  upon  the  loot  orgy  of  the  muti- 
neers. 

March  2,  old  General  Chiang  Kuei-ti,  with  his  cheery  face 
and  bent  shoulders,  creeps  jauntily  into  his  tight  little  car- 
riage, and  with  a  very  small  guard,  and  a  headsman  following 
on  behind,  goes  out  into  the  City.  He  is  showing  the  nations 
that  they  "have  him."  His  orderly  carries  a  list  of  names  in 
his  hand.  Here  and  there  the  old  General  stops,  and  a  man 
is  led  up  to  be  questioned  and  to  give  evidence.  From  the 
people  in  the  street  someone  is  then  swiftly  beheaded,  perhaps 
on  general  principles,  perhaps  because  he  is  guilty  or  has  been 
merely  denounced  by  an  enemy.  Then  come  two  or  three 
mutineers  and  looters  deserving  their  fate.  Captain  Reeves 

345 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

and  Captain  Holcomb  riding  through  the  looted  section,  see 
five  dead  in  the  streets  and  farther  on  General  Chiang  Kuei-ti 
and  his  beheading  party. 

Two  battalions  of  the  mutineers  commandeer  a  train  at 
the  station  of  the  Peking-Hankow  Railway  and  start  south- 
ward. Long  lines  of  carts  bring  refugees  and  valuables  into 
the  Legation  Quarter,  and  fugitives  crowd  the  trains  to  Tien- 
tsin. At  evening,. fires  start  on  the  north  side  of  the  City  and 
shooting  begins.  The  destruction  of  property  is  estimated 
at  $10,000,000. 

The  fleeing  mutineers  are  approaching  Paoting-fu,  the 
provincial  Capital  80  miles  to  the  south,  where  another  mu- 
tiny occurs  and  that  city  is  looted  and  burned.  Communica- 
tions in  that  direction  are  stopped.  Mutineers  are  looting  and 
burning  Tientsin.  They  plunder  the  Mint  and  keep  up  rifle 
firing  to  intimidate  the  people.  The  British  Somerset  Regi- 
ment sends  one  company  to  protect  the  railway  station.  A 
German  physician  is  shot  dead. 

March  3,  i  A.M.,  firing  is  heard  at  Fengtai,  on  the  Tientsin 
Railway,  10  miles  distant.  The  2Oth  Chinese  Division  from 
Manchuria  has  mutinied,  and  the  loyal  3rd  Chinese  Division 
from  Liu-kou-ch'iao,  a  few  miles  distant,  is  attacking  it. 
One  hundred  British  troops  at  Fengtai  are  obliged  to  give  an 
ultimatum  to  the  Chinese  troops,  as  they  are  threatening  the 
railway  yards,  shops,  station,  and  settlement  there.  The 
British  Commander  gives  the  Chinese  one  hour  to  vacate  their 
positions  100  yards  distant.  Several  hundred  of  the  British 
Inniskilling  Fusiliers  arrive  in  time  to  take  the  Chinese  posi- 
tions, and  the  Chinese,  about  1,500  in  number,  move  away. 
Train  service  is  arrested,  and  the  representatives  of  the  Pow- 
ers meet  in  the  Legations  to  consider  measures  for  restoring 
communications  with  the  sea.  Peking  is  in  a  state  of  war, 
and  martial  law  is  declared  in  the  North.  The  Legations 
summon  reinforcements  from  Tientsin,  Port  Arthur  and 
Shanghai,  and  prepare  for  siege. 

An  international  force  of  800  men,  representatives  of  the 
Legation  Guards  of  all  nations,  march  through  the  main 
streets  of  Peking  as  a  demonstration. 

346 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 
THE  MIDNIGHT  WAR  VIGIL  AT   NANKING 

ON  the  morning  of  March  3,  at  Nanking,  all  that  is 
known  of  the  disorders  at  Peking,  the  Manchu  Capi- 
tal, at  Paoting-fu,  the  Capital  of  the  metropolitan 
province,  and  at  Tientsin,  port  of  Peking  and  the  metropolis 
of  Northern  China,  is  that  the  disorders  have  followed  the 
arrival  at  Peking  of  the  Nanking  delegates. 

No  word  has  been  received  from  these  delegates.  Tele- 
graphic reports  received  at  Shanghai  reiterate  previous  reports 
that  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  has  been  assassinated.  These  are  fol- 
lowed by  dispatches  saying  that  he  has  taken  refuge  in  the 
Foreign  Legations.  Acting-President  Sun  Yat-sen  can  get 
no  word  from  President-elect  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  nor  from  Tang 
Shao-yi,  whom  he  knows  has  been  separated  from  the  Nanking 
delegates.  But  now  Sun  Yat-sen  receives  from  the  Nanking 
delegates  at  Peking  a  cryptic  telegram,  asking  that  a  Republi- 
can army  be  dispatched  at  once  to  Peking  to  support  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai. 

The  question  at  Nanking  therefore  is :  Why  the  disorder 
at  Peking?  Is  it  the  political  surprise  from  without,  which 
the  internal  dissensions  of  China  have  invited  from  the  first? 
Has  the  outsider  grasped  the  fleeting  opportunity — its  last 
chance  to  sunder  the  country?  Has  the  shadow  returned  to 
blot  out  unity? 

I  will  never  forget  March  3,  1912,  at  Nanking.  It  inspired 
the  Chinese  soothsayer  with  gloomy  prophecies,  which  hang 
in  the  mind  as  the  words  of  the  Roman  seer:  "Beware  the 
Ides  of  March."  It  was  drizzling  rain,  there  were  no  car- 
riages, and  in  order  to  reach  the  Acting-President's  "White 
House,"  I  hailed  in  the  street  a  dilapidated  rickshaw,  dragged 
by  two  ragged,  unkempt  beggars.  I  had  no  lap-robe  of  any 
kind.  The  rickshaw  had  a  leaky  top  which  flapped  in  my 

347 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

face.  I  stopped  at  the  buildings  newly  occupied  by  the  Foreign 
Office,  and  found  that  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  Wang 
Ch'ung-huei,  had  gone  to  the  President's  yamen. 

I  started  out  again.  The  road  was  in  some  places  swim- 
ming in  watery  mud,  and  it  was  an  achey,  rheumatic  day. 
The  Minister  of  War,  Hwang  Hsing,  passed  me  in  a  carriage, 
at  speed,  with  his  escort,  their  capes  flying  in  the  wind,  flour- 
ishing their  automatic  revolvers,  and  anon  sighting  at  imag- 
inary targets  at  the  roadside. 

I  too  finally  arrived,  to  find  that  a  State  council  of  war 
had  been  called.  The  men  of  the  Minister  of  War's  escort 
were  clanking  about  with  their  swords  and  spurs  on  the 
raised  pavements  in  the  courts,  while  their  steaming  ponies 
were  being  led  up  and  down  under  the  gate-houses,  where 
we  had  to  dodge  here  and  there  to  get  through. 

My  name  and  address  were  written  down  in  the  inner 
gate-house,  and  the  gate-keeper  took  me  to  the  reception- 
room.  Mr.  Ma  Su,  the  President's  secretary,  was  reported 
absent.  He  could  not  be  found.  At  last,  when  he  did  come, 
he  told  me  that  the  Cabinet  meeting  had  begun  and  might  not 
end  until  7  P.M.  or  8  P.M.  It  was  then  not  5  P.M.  The  meet- 
ing had  been  called,  said  Ma  Su,  on  account  of  the  turn  of 
affairs  at  Peking.  It  dragged  on  through  the  night.  A  tele- 
gram was  received  from  Tang  Shao-yi  asking  for  troops,  and 
the  Cabinet  took  up  the  personal  situation  of  the  President- 
elect Yuan  Shih-k'ai  and  Tang  Shao-yi,  who  were  believed 
to  be  refugees  in  the  Legation  Quarter,  and  planned  for  their 
rescue. 

r  Sun  Yat-sen  proposed  to  personally  lead  20,000  men  to  the 
rescue  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  The  status  of  Peking  was  taken 
up,  and  he  was  persuaded  against  this  resolve.  The  argu- 
ment was  that  Nanking  was  the  Capital  and  seat  of  the  de 
facto  Government.  The  members  of  the  Government  could 
not  move  to  a  local  centre.  Disorder  at  Peking  was  a  local 
and  isolated  condition  unaffecting  the  rest  of  the  nation,  for 
which  the  nation  centred  at  Nanking  assumed  full  responsibil- 
ity and  would  act  accordingly.  On  this  hypothesis  a  plan  of 
relief  was  agreed  upon.  The  Republican  expeditionary  force 

348 


THE   MIDNIGHT  WAR   VIGIL  AT  NANKING 

of  3,000  centred  at  Chief oo  was  to  be  sent  at  once  to  Tientsin. 
The  army  on  the  Tientsin-Pukow  Railway  was  to  move  across 
Shantung  and  Chihli  to  Peking,  and  Vice-President  General 
Li  Yuan-hung  was  to  send  a  large  force  northward  from 
Wuchang.  Orders  were  immediately  dispatched  for  the  force 
at  Chefoo  to  move  to  Tientsin,  and  for  the  war-vessels  in  the 
North  to  co-operate  with  it.  Vice-President  General  Li  Yuan- 
hung  was  asked  by  telegraph  respecting  his  ability  to  co- 
operate. 

The  meeting  did  not  end  until  daylight.  It  was  after 
5  A.M.,  March  4.  About  n  A.M.  Ma  Su  was  up  and  had  just 
finished  dressing.  He  said  that  the  President  was  not  up  yet, 
because  they  had  all  gone  to  bed  so  late  on  account  of  the 
Cabinet  meeting.  However,  we  could  go  in.  We  started 
toward  the  court,  and  were  met  by  another  secretary,  who 
stopped  to  say  that  the  President  was  not  up  yet.  We  went 
on  through  the  garden  by  the  usual  path,  passing  the  guard 
and  reaching  the  President's  door.  Ma  Su  ran  up  the  steps, 
and  I  followed  him.  We  went  into  the  west  room,  as  usual. 
It  had  been  slightly  changed.  The  round  table  on  which  we 
had  had  coffee  when  I  was  last  here,  was  gone.  There  was 
a  small  round  stand  in  its  place,  and  the  sides  of  the  room 
were  arranged  with  small  tea-tables — each  with  two  chairs, 
in  Chinese  fashion.  But  the  place  was  strictly  foreign  in  style, 
Suchow  curtains  hung  at  the  windows. 

Ma  Su  asked  me  to  sit  down,  and  from  one  of  the  small 
tables  took  two  photographs  which  the  President  was  going 
to  sign  for  me.  "See,"  said  he,  "these  have  not  been  touched 
since  yesterday,"  and  went  out  to  the  President's  room.  Sun 
Yat-sen  signed  them,  one  with  his  English  signature,  one 
with  his  Chinese  signature,  and  the  two  came  back  together, 
an  orderly  accompanying.  Sun  Yat-sen  shook  hands  with 
me,  and  we  sat  down.  I  mention  these  facts  thus  minutely 
because  this  was  the  last  time  I  saw  Sun  Yat-sen  as  the  head 
of  the  Republic  of  China,  and  as  he  appeared  and  lived  in 
the  last  days  of  his  presidency. 

The  orderly  stood  at  attention  within  three  feet  of  the 
President's  chair.  Ma  Su  waited  at  the  door  for  a  few  mo- 

349 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

• 

ments  while  we  were  exchanging  preliminary  remarks,  and 
then  went  out.  Although  he  had  just  got  up,  the  President 
was  not  more  composed  than  usual.  Telegrams  were  coming 
in  from  the  North  and  were  brought  to  him  while  we  were 
talking.  He  told  me  what  had  happened  at  Fengtai  and  at 
Tientsin  and  what  the  condition  was  believed  to  be  in  Peking. 

"It  is  very  serious,"  he  continued. 

I  replied  that  it  seemed  to  be  a  local  affair,  and  that  from 
my  experience  of  news  reports  and  of  outbreaks  in  China  it- 
was  not  so  extensive  or  threatening  as  the  telegrams  asserted 
and  that  it  would  undoubtedly  die  down. 

The  President  shook  his  head  and  said  that  the  troops 
had  engaged  the  British  at  Fengtai  and  that  these  were  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai's  own  soldiers.  The  secretaries  came  and  went, 
carrying  cards  of  newly  arrived- visitors  and  bringing  outgoing 
telegrams  for  approval.  One  telegram  was  brought  in  that 
had  evidently  arrived  from  the  North  and  was  carried  out1 
again.  I  asked  if  the  reports  about  the  killing  of  foreigners 
in  the  North  were  true.  One  foreigner,  he  said,  a  German, 
had  been  killed.  I  said  I  thought  the  danger  to  foreign  life 
and  property  on  the  railway  in  Chihli,  and  in  Peking  and 
Tientsin,  was  slight,  as  there  were  ample  foreign  troops 
there. 

"That  is  just  what  the  telegram  was  about.  The  soldiers 
of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  have  attacked  the  Austrian  Concession  at 
Tientsin." 

The  President's  long  distrust  through  fourteen  years  of 
warfare  against  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  evidently  forced  back 
into  his  thoughts,  but  he  did  not  give  expression  to  it.  He 
knew  that  the  telegrams  were  in  a  sense  unreliable. 

Personally,  I  could  not  think  it  possible  that  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai  was  responsible  for  the  outbreak  in  Peking  or  that  his 
party  could  attempt  a  political  surprise.  But  there  seemed 
nothing  for  me  to  say  more  on  that  subject. 

"The  most  important  thing  now,"  I  said,  "appears  to  be 
the  plans  for  the  inauguration.  If  this  is  more  than  a  local 
trouble,  it  will  be  necessary  to  change  your  plan  of  having 
the  inauguration  here." 

350 


THE   MIDNIGHT  WAR   VIGIL  AT  NANKING 

"We  have  provided  against  that,"  he  replied. 

"Can  you  send  troops  to  Peking?" 

"We  have  about  30,000  troops  we  can  send  there,  3,000 
at  Chefoo,  who  are  going  to  Tientsin,  the  rest  to  the  north  of 
here." 

"How  soon  will  they  arrive?" 

"They  must  cross  Shantung;  it  will  take  ten  days." 

"It  is  a  large  movement,"  said  I ;  "I  hope  it  will  not  be 
necessary.  I  have  believed  from  the  first  that  the  real  revolu- 
tion in  China  would  be  that  of  the  Chinese  people,  that  the 
Manchus  would  go,  but  that  then  the  revolution  proper  would 
begin.  I  am  not  sure  that  all  this  is  the  beginning,  as  it  will 
be.  I  would  not  have  prophesied  a  war  at  once,  but  only  as 
the  result  of  changes  to  come." 

"I  do  not  think  so,"  answered  the  President  quickly.  "I 
do  not  think  there  will  be  a  revolution  of  the  Chinese  people." 
•"-Before  leaving,  I  asked  President  Sun  Yat-sen  if  there 
was  anything  I  could  do  for  him,  as  I  was  going  to  Peking. 

"The  most  important  thing  is  a  loan,"  he  replied,  "we 
must  have  a  loan ;  the  financial  is  the  most  important." 

"Have  all  the  other  loans  fallen  through?" 

"Yes,  the  Japanese  one.     But  we  have  made  a  loan." 

"How  much  do  you  want?" 

The  President  hesitated,  and  then  said:  "Fifty  millions 
of  dollars,  or  a  hundred  million  dollars." 

"That  is  the  sum  of  the  original  four-Power  loan,"  said  I, 
"The  money  will  have  to  come  from  the  banking  groups  of 
the  four  Powers,  I  suppose?" 

"Yes,  or  from  others.  If  they  don't  give  it  to  us,  we 
must  get  it  from  others." 

"In  the  end,"  I  explained,  "a  large  loan  must  necessarily 
come  from  the  capitalistic  nations — that  is,  France,  Great  Bri- 
tain, Germany,  and  the  United  States.  If  I  could  be  of 
service  to  you  in  this  matter,  I  would  be  glad  to  help.  But 
I  presume  the  obtaining  of  a  loan  by  China  now  depends,  as 
before,  on  the  security,  the  manner  of  paying,  the  use  made 
of  the  money,  and  the  welfare  of  foreign  trade.  But  when 
the  Republican  Government  is  recognised  there  must  be  no 

351 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

difficulty  about  the  loans ;  they  can  be  carried  out,  and  in  fact 
money  could  be  advanced  to  China  to  relieve  immediate  em- 
barrassment." 

President  Sun  Yat-sen  merely  assented  to  this.  I  arose — 
secretaries  were  still  coming  and  going,  and  a  number  of 
callers  were  waiting  outside.  I  went  over  to  a  sofa  on  the 
north  side  of  the  room  where  lay  the  two  photographs  that 
the  President  had  signed.  He  followed  me  and  stood  beside 
the  sofa  while  I  tied  the  photographs  up  in  an  old  newspaper 
that  had  been  around  them.  Strangely  and  confusingly 
enough,  he  stood  diffidently  at  the  end  of  the  sofa  with  noth- 
ing to  say,  so  that  I  had  to  make  conversation.  He  was  the 
embodiment  of  some  kind  of  immense  force,  not  so  much  of 
himself  as  of  those  who,  like  myself,  felt  that  he  was  a  mobile, 
dependable  centre  for  whatever  forces  require  a  centre.  As 
I  leaned  over  the  photographs  I  wondered  if  he  knew  these 
things  and  had  learned  that  in  himself  a  single  man  is  nothing, 
really  nothing,  in  a  great  task  like  a  revolution,  unless  as  a 
visible  point  to  the  mass,  or  a  medium,  fluid  and  impressible, 
touching  all  the  units. 

I  commented  on  the  photographs  and  expressed  my  ad- 
miration of  his  signature  in  Chinese,  though  I  suppose 
I  should  have  complimented  his  writing  in  English,  which  he 
perhaps  would  have  appreciated  more. 

But  I  tied  the  parcel  with  a  grass  string,  said  good-bye  and 
departed.  The  President  advanced  half-way  across  the  room, 
and  as  I  went  out  was  scanning  a  card  that  had  been  put  into 
his  hand  by  one  of  the  secretaries — it  was  possibly  that  of  his 
next  visitor.  We  had  been  three-quarters  of  an  hour  together. 
This  was  the  last  time  I  saw  him. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 
THE  INAUGURATION  AT  PEKING 

IT  was  drizzling  and  misty  when  I  went  out,  making  my 
way  hastily  across  the  garden  as  before,  alone.  The 
guards  in  their  ulsters  were  huddled  together  at  the  doors 
and  gates  as  I  passed.  The  impression  I  received  from  my  last 
visit  at  the  "White  House"  offices  was  that  the  Nanking  Gov- 
ernment could  not  depend  upon  the  information  it  was  receiv- 
ing from  the  North,  and  this  proved  to  be  correct.  It  sought 
information  of  the  foreign  consuls.  The  President  and  the 
Cabinet  showed  anxiety  regarding  the  position  of  Tang  Shao- 
yi  and  suspected  that  the  telegrams  from  Peking  were  being 
tampered  with.  As  the  representative  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  they 
were  more  concerned  about  him,  Tang  Shao-yi,  than  about 
Tsai  Yuan-pei  and  his  associates,  whose  mission  was  merely 
that  of  inviting  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  to  come  to  Nanking.  The 
possible  conspiracy  which  the  situation  at  Peking  offered  the 
night  of  March  3  and  the  morning  of  March  4  from  the  point 
of  view  of  Nanking  might  be  thus  outlined : 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  the  opportunist,  is  known  to  Chinese  revo- 
lutionaries as  an  astute  turncoat  and  political  trimmer.  Tang 
Shao-yi,  his  Envoy,  has  lately  turned  to  the  Republican  side 
unreservedly  and  almost  without  persuasion.  Both  are  re- 
united and  suddenly  involved  in  a  new  revolutionary  situation. 
This  is  the  first  element.  The  second  element  is  the  foreign 
danger.  At  least  one  Power,  Japan,  on  account  of  its  great 
grasp  of  Chinese  affairs,  its  special  position  and  power  in 
Eastern  Asia  and  the  world,  is  in  a  position  to  profit  by  China's 
internal  dissension.  The  Nanking  Government  acts  on  the 
knowledge  that  the  aid  of  this  Power  has  been  considered 
in  Peking  by  the  Manchu  Dynasty  and  has  appeared  at  Nan- 
king. While  the  Republic  of  China  in  the  South  is  united  by 

353 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

race  and  traditions,  Northern  China  is  divided  by  traditions 
and  separate  forms  of  administration  of  four  different  peoples 
and  is  the  centre  of  international  complications  that  form  the 
foremost  political  question  in  the  world,  making  it  in  all  the 
most  inviting  sphere  for  a  coup  d'etat.  Such  a  stroke  at  the 
Republic,  led  by  Japan,  it  would  be  expected  would  be  fol- 
lowed by  all  her  allies. 

I  could  appreciate  what  I  was  sure  must  be  the  feelings 
of  the  President  and  Cabinet  in  Nanking  on  the  morning  of 
March  4.  Before  I  left  the  President's  house  they  telegraphed 
the  Diplomatic  Body,  representing  the  Great  Powers  at  Pe- 
king, their  assumption  of  governmental  rights  under  the  con- 
ditions existing  throughout  China,  deploring  the  events  of 
the  past  few  days  and  accepting  all  responsibility,  thus  shutting 
out  all  other  authority  before  the  Great  Powers.  They  in- 
formed the  Powers  that  measures  were  being  taken  to  rein- 
force Yuan  Shih-k'ai. 

The  Minister  of  War  asked  Mr.  Tuckey,  Chief  Engineer 
and  Superintendent  of  the  Tientsin-Pukow  Railway  at  Nan- 
king, for  four  locomotives  for  use  on  the  Northern  Anhuei 
section  of  the  railway  to  transport  troops.  The  railway  was 
to  be  turned  over  to  the  Republican  military  March  5,  a  fact 
that  had  not  a  little  to  do  with  British  action  on  this  occasion, 
since  this  was  British  property. 

Upon  receipt  of  the  Nanking  Government's  notification  of 
the  military  advance  upon  Peking  the  Diplomatic  Body,  which 
regarded  the  disorders  at  Peking  and  elsewhere  in  Chihli 
Province  as  the  acts  of  the  irresponsible  soldiery,  took  alarm. 
Regarding  an  advance  on  Peking  as  an  unnecessary  measure 
and  a  great  mistake  in  diplomacy  on  the  part  of  the  Nanking 
Government,  one  almost  certain  to  create  unnecessary  hos- 
tilities in  the  metropolitan  province,  and  perhaps  further  dis- 
orders, certain  Ministers  sent  unofficial  advices  through  their 
consuls  at  Nanking  persuading  the  Nanking  Government  to 
abandon  these  plans. 

When  the  Nanking  delegates  reunited  at  the  Hotel  des 
Wagons-Lits,  Peking,  after  their  escape,  they  selected  four 
of  their  number  to  return  to  Nanking  and  persuade  the  Re- 

354 


THE    INAUGURATION    AT    PEKING 

publican  Government  against  insisting  upon  the  voyage  of 
President-elect  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  to  Nanking,  but  on  the  con- 
trary proceed  with  the  formation  of  the  Coalition  Cabinet. 
President  Sun  Yat-sen  was  already  convinced  by  the  disor- 
ders in  the  North  that  it  was  sufficient  to  have  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's 
inauguration  at  Peking. 

The  abdication,  election  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  and  unity  of 
the  country  removed  the  necessity  of  giving  an  answer  re- 
specting further  Japanese  loans,  which  loans  collapsed,  and 
with  the  reassurances  of  the  other  Powers  sent  from  Peking 
the  shadow  of  Japan  passed  for  the  time  being.  Before  leav- 
ing Nanking  for  Peking  I  asked  the  Republican  member  al- 
ready mentioned  if  there  was  any  embarrassment  of  that  kind 
remaining,  and  he  said  no,  that  was  past  now.  China  again 
drew  a  long  breath  of  relief. 

My  personal  situation  as  a  correspondent,  when  I  quit 
Nanking,  was  like  that  of  the  Nanking  Government — one  of 
bridging  the  gulf  between  the  Empire  and  the  Republic.  I 
was  to  get  to  Peking  for  the  inauguration,  to  see  it  and  the 
conversion  of  the  old  City  from  a  royal  to  a  republican  Capi- 
tal. The  war  correspondent's  situation  is  often  that,  in  min- 
iature, of  those  whose  great  deeds  he  reports.  My  course  was 
now  as  stormy  as  that  of  the  leaders  of  the  Peking  or  of  the 
Nanking  Government. 

The  merchant  steamer  service  on  the  China  coast  was 
disorganised  by  the  Rebellion  and  I  was  obliged  to  take  pas- 
sage on  a  naval  auxiliary.  It  was  a  soaking  day  on  the 
Yangtse  when  with  a  wet  coolie  and  sampan  I  got  aboard  a 
4,ooo-ton  vessel  loaded  with  nearly  6,000  tons  of  ammunition 
and  other  war  materials.  We  put  out  of  the  Huangpu  and 
the  Yangtse  into  the  China  Sea.  As  the  political  sky  cleared 
for  the  President  at  Nanking  the  situation  for  us  cleared 
as  we  neared  the  Chihli  coast,  and  when  we  landed  near  Taku 
the  sun  was  shining  as  though  the  storm  had  lifted  from  the 
Republic. 

When  I  passed  in  a  special  train  bearing  200  American 
troops  to  Peking  the  Inniskillings  were  crouching  behind  their 
fortifications  at  Fengtai.  Playing  the  role  of  the  Capital,  as 

355 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

through  the  ages,  Peking  in  her  foreign  military  dress  and 
appearance  was  more  warlike  than  at  any  time  since  the  revo- 
lutionary Rebellion  opened.  Now  rising  as  the  Capital  of 
the  Republic,  it  is  still  the  Chinese  Paris,  and  has  passed  into 
the  hands  of  its  "citizens."  With  its  blackened  walls,  its 
charred  timbers,  its  ashen  fields,  it  has  done  its  revolutionary 
best  to  rival  the  Capital  of  the  French. 

Glorious  old  Peking  has  been  trailed  in  the  dust.  It  is 
like  a  venerable  gentleman  appearing  in  Court  with  his  eyes 
blackened,  face  bruised,  hat  gone,  and  his  clothing  soiled  and 
torn,  in  the  hands  of  those  who  defame  him,  for  trial,  set  upon 
by  his  own  sons,  and  with  none  but  strangers  to  speak  for 
him. 

Or  Peking  is  like  a  discredited  queen  who  gathers  up  her 
torn  robes  to  face  her  accusers.  Turning  upon  them,  she  says : 
"Thus  far  shalt  thou  come  and  no  farther."  She  has  dis- 
missed Nanking's  aspirations  to  be  Capital.  However  dis- 
reputable her  present,  she  will  not  be  robbed  entirely  of  her 
birthright.  With  her  last  contention  surrendered  and,  as  it 
were,  with  her  back  against  the  wall,  she  claims  honour  for 
her  Minister,  the  last  official  of  her  Imperial  Government ;  all 
others  she  has  given  up.  He  must  be  acclaimed  under  her 
roof -tree. 

Tried  in  fire,  the  old  Capital  triumphant  was  lighting  the 
torch  of  the  Government  of  a  United  Republic  when  I  ar- 
rived. Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  being  inaugurated.  The  one  called 
traitor  is  chosen.  Out  of  the  hundreds  of  millions,  this  one 
called  to  save  the  Dynasty  and  the  Empire  is  singled  out  to 
unite  the  country  in  a  Republic.  "My  rheumatism,"  "my  en- 
feebled health,"  his  mechanical  dialogue  with  the  Throne  in 
October  in  Peking,  ends  in  the  Presidential  oath.  He  has 
passed  through  many  dangers,  leading  a  woman  and  a  little 
boy  and  all  their  tribe  and  kin  whom  he  has  brought  to  safety, 
and  he  now  receives  that  which  at  various  times  has  been 
offered  him  by  President  General  Li  Yuan-hung,  Wu  Ting- 
fang,  Tang  Shao-yi,  and  Sun  Yat-sen. 

After  the  Dynastic  cataclysm,  assassinations  and  attempted 
assassinations,  the  threatened  interference  of  the  Powers, 

356 


THE    INAUGURATION    AT    PEKING 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  uppermost — he  is  more  than  he  was  in  the 
beginning. 

Every  step  of  his  pathway  since  October  has  been  amid 
turmoil  and  disorder,  in  which  he  has  stood  firm.  February 
29,  when  the  disorders  occurred  and  the  shops  were  burning 
around  him,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  had  been  receiving  His  Excel- 
lency Sun  Pao-chi,  ex-Governor  of  Shantung,  who  had  come 
up  from  the  Astor  House  at  Tientsin  to  see  him.  Some  of 
those  present  in  the  excitement  urged  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  to  save 
himself.  "The  President-elect,  however,"  said  Sun  Pao-chi, 
"merely  replied,  'I  stand  firm !' " 

He  had  given  old  General  Chiang  Kuei-ti  command  of  the 
City.  Few  stood  with  him.  Report  said  he  was  abandoned  by 
his  following,  and  only  Tsai  Ting-kan,  his  faithful  secretary, 
who  had  been  one  of  the  envoys  to  General  Li  Yuan-hung  at  the 
beginning  of  November,  remained  with  him.  "Tons  of  valu- 
able loot,"  says  one,  "were  carried  into  the  premises  of  his 
yamen,  the  Foreign  Office,  by  his  own  soldiers  and  by  the 
ragamuffins  of  General  Chiang  Kuei-ti,  from  whence  it  was 
taken  in  the  early  morning  of  March  i  to  the  railway  station 
and  to  Paoting-fu." 

Tang  Shao-yi  asked  the  Ministers  of  the  Powers  to  take 
measures  to  prevent  further  bloodshed  and  loss  of  property 
in  Peking,  which  was  followed  by  the  reinforcement  of  the 
Legations. 

March  i  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  issued  a  communique  to  the  for- 
eigners in  which  he  said: 

"The  unexpected  disturbance  has  filled  me  with  sorrow. 
One  of  my  chief  duties  is  to  preserve  order  in  the  Capital. 
Hitherto  I  have  been  uniformly  successful.  Unto  you,  strang- 
ers in  a  strange  land,  I  wish  particularly  to  convey  my  sincere 
regrets.  Every  measure  of  precaution  is  now  taken  to  prevent 
recurrence." 

General  Chiang  Kuei-ti's  soldiers  returned  to  their  allegi- 
ance and  patrolled  the  streets,  administering  justice  with  the 
executioner's  sword.  I  looked  into  the  diary  of  a  friend  for 
these  exciting  days,  and  read:  "Beheading  everywhere." 
J.  W.  Chambers,  another  friend,  told  me  he  was  walking 

357 


along  the  street  and  with  a  companion  stopped  to  intercede 
on  behalf  of  a  Chinese  boy  of  twelve  or  fourteen  years  who 
was  tied  with  his  hands  behind  him  along  with  two  men. 
All  were  kneeling.  He  asked  the  soldiers  to  let  the  boy  off, 
as  he  was  too  young  to  be  killed  for  anything  he  had  done. 
The  soldiers  said  they  were  not  going  to  kill  the  boy — all  three 
prisoners  were  to  be  kept  there  until  four  o'clock,  when  they 
would  be  released.  The  soldiers  said  this  was  to  scare  the 
prisoners. 

The  only  reason  ever  given  for  the  disorders  was  that  the 
ignorant  soldiers  feared  the  reduction  of  their  pay  and  being 
compelled  to  cut  off  their  queues.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  ascribed 
the  disorders  to  this  cause.  March  7  he  issued  a  communica- 
tion to  the  soldiers  reminding  them — whom  he  has  "always 
treated  as  members  of  his  family — of  his  care  and  affection." 
He  admonished  them  to  remain  mindful  of  their  duties  and 
discipline,  and  pointed  out  that  otherwise  the  consequences 
of  their  lawless  acts  might  be  intervention  in  China  by  foreign 
Powers. 

The  homeless  Chinese  are  scraping  in  the  ashes  of  their 
ruined  shops  and  homes.  The  beheading  of  luckless  Chinese 
for  natural  moral  lapses,  no  different  from  those  exhibited  by 
officials  of  the  Legations  and  their  wives  and  families  in  1900, 
has  nearly  ceased.  Many  photographs  of  the  decapitations 
and  other  sensational  events  and  scenes,  now  called  the  sack 
of  Peking,  are  being  printed  by  and  sold  among  foreigners. 

Yuan   Shih-k'ai  is  being  inaugurated. 

.-  President  Sun  Yat-sen  and  the  Nanking  Assembly  have 
approved  a  plan  for  the  inauguration  at  Peking  .and  the  sub- 
sequent sending  by  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  of  a  representative  to  Nan- 
king to  assist  in  the  formation  of  a  Provisional  Cabinet,  with 
the  approval  of  the  Nanking  Assembly,  after  which  the  site 
of  the  Capital  of  the  Provisional  Government  shall  be  decided 
in  accordance  with  the  needs  of  the  situation. 

It  is  Sunday,  March  10,  1912.  The  rainbow  flag  flies  over 
the  gate-house  of  the  modern  Foreign  Office  building,  lately 
the  yamen  of  the  Premier  and  President-elect,  built  by  the 
American  engineer  C.  D.  Jameson  under  the  direction  of  Tang 

358 


THE    INAUGURATION    AT    PEKING 

Shao-yi,  and  by  the  support  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  and  the  late 
Empress  Grand  Dowager. 

The  Empress  Grand  Dowager,  whose  name  is  even  now 
imperishably  linked  with  the  best  plans  of  government  prog- 
ress in  China,  lives  in  this  scene.  The  incongruous  juggling 
of  the  days  of  autocracy  and  despotism  with  the  present  is 
further  shown  in  the  shrubbery  of  the  garden,  which  conveys 
some  notion  of  the  bizarre  setting  in  which  the  Republic  comes 
into  being  in  Peking.  It  is  winter,  and  on  the  leafless  twigs 
and  branches  are  fixed  bright  paper  flowers.  In  this  the  Re- 
public, seems  to  hark  back  to  the  beginning  of  the  seventh 
century  A.D.,  to  the  usurper  Yang  Ti,  who  squandered  large 
sums  of  money  on  his  palaces  and  gardens,  decorating  the 
trees  of  his  park  in  winter  with  flowers  and  leaves  of  silk. 
From  his  place  among  the  rabble  in  the  street  the  Chinese 
soothsayer  looking  through  the  gates  and  remembering  the 
suspicion  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  motives  might  say,  "Beware 
Yang  Ti." 

Resemblance  to  the  past  disappears  at  the  doorway,  where 
one  steps  through  a  foreign  portal,  ascends  a  foreign  stair 
opening  into  a  foyer,  and  comes  to  a  grand  staircase. 

In  the  reception  and  banqueting  hall  on  the  upper  floor 
gathers  the  small  and  remarkable  mixed  and  imposing  audience 
consisting  of  President-elect  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  his  secretary 
Tsai  Ting-kan,  his  suite,  the  Nanking  delegates  led  by  Tsai 
Yuan-pei,  Tang  Shao-yi  the  man  selected  for  Premier,  the 
Mongol  princes,  the  high  lamas,  high  civil  and  military  offi- 
cials, together  with  a  few  foreign  officials  and  foreign  env 
ployes  from  the  Chinese  Maritime  Customs  and  Postal  Bureau, 
a  dozen  foreign  correspondents,  and  other  foreign  spectators 
from  the  missions  and  hotels. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  dressed  in  the  uniform  of  military  cut 
in  which  he  first  received  the  Nanking  delegates.  In  stature 
he  is  shorter  than  anyone  present  except  a  few  of  these  dele- 
gates. He  holds  his  head  back  in  an  expectant,  strained  atti- 
tude which,  with  the  incongruity  of  his  foreign  clothes,  sug- 
gests to  one  who  has  known  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  the  wrench  in 
the  Chinese  order  marked  by  this  epochal  event.  There  is  un- 

359 


deniable  dignity  and  breadth  in  the  man  who  has  been  suc- 
cessively beaten  in  his  defence  of  the  Throne,  as  he  reads  in  a 
solemn  silence,  from  a  prepared  oath,  these  declarations: 

"Since  the  Republic  has  been  established  many  works  have 
to  be  performed.  I  shall  endeavour  faithfully  to  develop  the 
Republic,  to  sweep  away  the  disadvantages  of  absolute  mon- 
archism,  to  observe  the  constitutional  laws,  to  increase  the 
welfare  of  the  country,  and  to  cement  together  a  strong  na- 
tion embracing  all  the  five  races.  When  the  National  Assem- 
bly appoints  a  permanent  President  I  shall  retire.  This  I 
swear  before  the  Chinese  Republic." 

He  hands  the  written  oath  to  the  senior  Nanking  delegate, 
Tsai  Yuan-pei,  in  accordance  with  the  procedure  agreed  upon. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  Provisional  President. 

Standing  listening  was  this  strange  agglomeration  of  par- 
ticipants and  spectators.  The  Mongol  princes,  wards  of  the 
nation,  in  Mongol  dress,  stand  in  wonder  before  this  strange 
"kurultai,"  the  strangest  in  all  the  gatherings  of  the  Clans  to 
them  since  Genghis  was  made  the  Great  Khan  and  Kublai 
ruled  all  China.  The  Mongol  and  Tibetan  lamas;  they  are 
the  Church ;  most  dignified  of  all  in  their  rusty  gold  and  wine- 
coloured  robes;  they  too  stand  for  what  was  the  Throne,  and 
come  from  the  Yellow  Temple  under  its  patronage  since  the 
lamaist  Church  was  established  at  the  Capital  in  Peking  by  the 
Emperor  Chien  Lung.  Around  these  two  groups  from  the 
dependencies  are  the  civil  and  military  officials  of  Peking  in  a 
strange  mixture  of  mandarin  and  Western  costume.  The 
Chinese  Press,  too,  is  there. 

Shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the  "five  races"  are  the  actual 
representatives  of  the  Western  world  whose  civilisation  has 
brought  this  strange  event  to  pass.  Sir  Robert  Bredon,  late 
Acting  Inspector-General  of  Customs,  a  noted  foreign  figure 
in  the  drama  of  China's  change,  is  there.  Mr.  T.  Piry,  Postal 
Secretary  for  the  Chinese  Government,  is  there.  Not  far 
from  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  stands  Dr.  Morrison,  the  Times  corre- 
spondent; General  Munthe,  long  the  aide  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai; 
and  Major  Menzies,  a  faithful  English  partisan  and  attache. 

360 


THE    INAUGURATION    AT    PEKING 

Edward  T.  Williams,  First  Secretary  of  the  American 
Legation;  Dr.  Tenney,  Chinese  Secretary  of  the  American 
Legation;  and  Captain  Reeves,  American  Military  Attache, 
in  his  uniform  of  the  General  Staff  of  the  United  States 
Army,  are  officials  of  the  American  Legation  "unofficially 
present."  "Your  Legation,"  said  General  Munthe  to  me,  "is 
the  only  one  officially  represented  at  the  inauguration."  The 
foreign  correspondents  are  in  their  big  clothes,  some  of  them 
carrying  silk  hats, — attired  in  their  "glad  rags,"  as  the  Ameri- 
can journalist  expresses  it,  to  greet  the  President  and  the 
rainbow  flag. 

"Near  me,"  said  a  distinguished  foreigner,  "stood  Wang 
Chao-ming.  He  is  the  man  who  attempted  to  assassinate  the 
Prince  Regent  by  placing  an  explosive  in  the  roadway,  or 
under  a  bridge,  where  the  Prince  was  to  pass.  I  believe 
he  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  Republic,"  said  he 
in  a  manner  expressive  of  the  strange  associations  brought 
about  by  the  inauguration.  Wang  Chao-ming  had  been  the 
representative  at  Peking  of  the  revolutionary  Rebellion,  and 
was  now  one  of  the  Nanking  delegates  and  a  distinguished 
figure  among  Republican  leaders. 

Through  all  this  moves  General  Yin  Chang,  ex-Minister 
to  Germany,  ex-Minister  of  Wrar,  ex-Commander  of  the  Im- 
perial Army  and  victor  in  the  capture  of  Hankow,  a  Manchu, 
in  his  official  uniform  but  humbly  picking  his  way  around  the 
Republican  delegates,  the  lamas,  the  Mongol  princes,  the  for- 
eigners and  the  rest,  to  some  place  where  he  will  be  unob- 
served. Republicans  have  hitherto  demanded  that  he  be  an- 
swerable for  the  deeds  of  the  Imperial  Army.  To  them  he 
is  the  shade  of  unnumbered  thousands  massacred  at  Han- 
kow, not  to  say  the  shade  of  the  Dynasty  itself.  He  is  the 
ghost  at  the  feast,  and  cannot  be  hid.  Nevertheless,  he  has 
been  a  man,  one  who  has  done  his  duty.  He  is  one  with  the 
woman  and  the  little  boy,  and  is  under  the  shelter  of  the 
great  President. 

Where  are  the  others?  Poor  Prince  Ching,  last  of  the 
great  Manchus  of  the  old  school,  is  in  refuge,  sick  at  St. 
Michael's,  the  French  Hospital  in  the  Legation  Quarter  op- 

361 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

posite  the  American  Guard  barracks.  Prince  Su,  the  genial 
mediator  between  the  Manchus  and  revolutionaries,  is  in  Port 
Arthur  or  Dalny,  a  refugee  from  revolution  and  debt.  Yu 
Lang,  a  worthy  and  modest  Prince,  is  lost  altogether.  Na 
Tung,  late  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  is — where?  at  Tsing- 
tao  or  Tientsin.  The  belligerent  Prince  Tsai  T'ao,  the  brother 
of  the  Regent,  so  it  is  said,  is  in  the  German  Legation.  Prince 
Tsai  Hsun,  the  fat  Prince,  ex-Minister  of  the  Navy,  brother 
of  the  Prince  Regent  and  Prince  Tsai  T'ao,  the  nabob,  the 
leader  of  Manchu  fashion,  the  nobody — of  him  none  has 
thought  to  inquire.  Pu  Lun  the  pleasant  is  remembered.  Hsi 
Liang,  the  great  ex-Viceroy,  ex-Tartar  General  in  charge  of 
Jehol,  the  Court's  contemplated  refuge,  is  as  though  he  never 
existed.  Tieh  Liang,  ex-Minister  of  War,  ex-Tartar  General 
of  Nanking,  alone  is  saved  from  being  forgotten  by  a  mean 
rumour  to  the  effect  that  in  Dalny  he  is  plotting  against  the 
President-elect. 

The  great  names  are  those  of  the  Cantonese  and  Huna- 
riese  Revolutionists :  Li  Yuan-hung  the  Republican  Nestor, 
Wu  Ting-fang  the  advocate,  Tang  Shao-yi  the  mediator, 
Huang  Hsing  the  soldier,  Wang  Chao-ming  the  would-be  as- 
sassin of  the  Prince  Regent.  Oh  yes,  the  Prince  Regent, 
where  is  he?  There  is  the  Emperor  also,  and  .the  Lung  Yu 
Empress  Dowager.  All  the  mighty  are  scattered  and  fallen. 
Long  live  the  mighty ! 

The  written  oath  handed  to  Tsai  Yuan-pei,  a  band  plays 
the  national  anthem,  approved  by  the  Throne  October  4, 
1911,  after  the  fall  of  Szechuan.  It  is  the  last  word  and 
comes  as  it  were  from  the  Empress  Grand  Dowager.  All 
acknowledge  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  President,  and  disperse.  The 
inauguration  is  over.  Eight  thousand  armed  men  revolt  at 
Canton.  Fighting  begins.  The  pirate  hellions  of  the  delta 
rally  around  the  flags  of  their  chiefs  Wang  and  Luk  at  the 
East  Gate.  These  mosquito  and  bull-frog  junk  fleets,  scoun- 
drels from  the  bayous,  the  firecracker  rascals  of  the  sampans, 
blaze  away  over  barricades  and  housetops  until  they  score 
1,500  death  casualties  for  all,  and  stop  blood-drinking  March 
14  with  a  battle.  March  15  they  look  indifferently  upon  the 

362 


THE    INAUGURATION    AT    PEKING 

beheading  of  200  of  their  own  men,  and  after  four  days  put 
up  their  arms  again.  It  is  Canton's  contribution  to  the  inau- 
guration of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  It  is  the  Canton  initiation  of 
the  "Flowery  Republic."  There  is  nothing  tame  about  it. 

March  12,  in  response  to  an  invitation  from  the  lama  tem- 
ple inside  the  Anting  Gate,  the  Nanking  delegation  visits 
the  lama  priests  there — those  representatives  of  the  ancient 
ecclesiastical  rule  of  so  much  of  China.  Here  the  extremes 
of  social  and  political  notions  of  the  Republic  and  of  the 
Empire  meet.  The  Church  is  here  making  its  bow  to  the 
new  Power  in  China.  And  in  response  the  senior  delegate, 
Tsai  Yuan-pei,  standing  with  his  associates  around  him,  ad- 
dresses the  head  lama,  a  young  man,  and  says : 

"You  must  not  think  that  the  overthrow  of  the  Dynasty 
and  the  establishment  of  the  Republic  has  been  the  work  of  a 
clique  made  up  of  a  few  men  and  of  a  few  conspirators.  It 
has  been  accomplished  by  the  rising  of  the  whole  people. 
Under  the  Republic  all  have  their  responsibilities,  and  each 
one  must  do  his  best." 

Thus  the  welding  of  Republic  and  Empire.  It  is  evening, 
and  in  the  Legation  Quarter  all  sorts  of  Chinese  and  Manchu 
officers  are  dodging,  incognito,  in  and  out  of  the  narrow  pas- 
sages. While  ruminating  over  the  probable  effects  of  the 
last  two  or  three  days'  work,  I  see  a  mysterious  native  in  a 
long  buttoned  coat  and  a  military  cap  pulled  down  over  his 
eyes,  come  out  of  the  lane  beside  the  Hongkong  and  Shanghai 
Bank,  evidently  from  the  house  of  the  comprador.  General 
Yin  Chang  slips  from  the  Hotel  des  Wagons-Lits  and  goes  to 
the  German  Legation,  to  dine,  it  is  said,  with  Prince  Tsai  T'ao 
and  the  Kaiser's  officers. 

The  work  is  done :  who  knows  what  will  come  of  it  ? 


CHAPTER   XXXV 

SUN  YAT-SEN'S  FAREWELL 

YUAN  SHIH-K'AI  signalised  the  inauguration  of  his 
administration  and  the  beginning  of  the  Republic  by 
remitting  all  delinquent  land  taxes  and  pardoning  pris- 
oners, excluding  only  murderers  and  robbers. 

March  n  the  Provisional  Constitution  of  the  Republic 
was  adopted. 

Before  I  left  Nanking  the  Republic  had  turned  with  great 
relief  from  the  Japanese,  and  fear  of  Japanese  control,  to  the 
Belgians  and  to  combined  Russian  and  Belgian  loans  and 
counter-influence.  The  Nanking  Assembly  in  the  paramount 
question  of  finance  agreed  with  the  President-elect,  at  the 
earliest  moment  to  form  connections  with  neutral  sources  for 
financial  aid.  The  loan  which  President  Sun  Yat-sen  told  me 
had  been  made  was  the  preliminary  loan  agreement  with  Bel- 
gium, succeeding  complications  of  which  were  to  promptly 
throw  the  Republic  into  the  financial  relation  with  the  Powers 
that  existed  under  the  Empire. 

It  is  at  least  a  relief  that  the  danger  from  Japan  either 
at  Peking  or  Nanking,  apparently,  has  not  created  any  inno- 
vation in  China's  foreign  relations.  March  12  Tang  Shao-yi 
is  formally  named  Premier  and  proceeds  with  the  attempt  to 
consummate  the  Belgian  loan.  March  19  Tang  Shao-yi  leaves 
Peking  to  go  to  Nanking  for  the  formation  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's 
Cabinet.  March  29  the  Cabinet  is  agreed  on,  and  April  I 
President  Sun  Yat-sen  and  the  members  of  his  Cabinet,  at  a 
meeting  of  the  Nanking  Assembly,  formally  lay  down  their 
offices  and  give  over  the  Seal  of  the  Republic  to  the  President 
of  the  Assembly  and  to  Tang  Shao-yi,  the  Premier  and  repre- 
sentative of  President  Yuan  Shih-k'ai. 

In  this,  President  Sun  Yat-sen  fulfils  the  oath  of  his  inau- 

364 


SUN   YAT-SEN'S    FAREWELL 

guration.  A  military  band  plays  a  German  march  as  the  Presi- 
dent and  his  Cabinet  take  their  places  in  the  Assembly  room. 
Thirty-five  members  are  present,  together  with  half  a  dozen 
foreign  spectators  and  a  "handful"  of  young  reformers.  Nine 
Chinese  suffragettes  occupy  a  conspicuous  position  in  the  gal- 
lery and  observe  a  noteworthy  propriety.  Mr.  Chao  S.  Bok, 
President  of  the  Assembly,  states  that  the  President  will  ad- 
dress the  Assembly  in  a  farewell  message.  Walking  to  the 
rostrum,  President  Sun  Yat-sen  says : 

"I  came  to  Nanking  January  i  to  be  inaugurated  Presi- 
dent of  the  Provisional  Government  of  the  Republic  of  China, 
and  to-day,  April  I,  is  just  three  months  from  my  induction 
to  office.  During  this  interval  we  have  accomplished  what  we 
aimed  at,  namely,  the  establishment  of  a  Republic.  Now  that 
the  union  of  North  and  South  is  perfected,  and  a  Coalition 
Government  formed,  I  come  here  to  resign  my  office. 

"On  taking  leave  of  you,  I  feel  that  I  would  like  to  say  a 
few  words.  The  Republic  of  China  should  always  aim  at  the 
promotion  of  the  world's  peace,  for  only  by  so  doing  can  the 
welfare  of  mankind  be  advanced.  Before  this  can  be  done  we 
must  firmly  lay  the  foundations  of  the  Republic.  This  is  the 
duty  of  all  of  us.  If  we  are  faithful  to  this  duty,  our  object 
can  be  attained  quickly.  Though  most  of  our  people  are 
ignorant  of  the  meaning  of  the  word  and  of  republicanism,  yet 
for  centuries  they  have  enjoyed  peace  and  have  been  lovers  of 
peace.  To  instruct  them  in  the  principles  of  republicanism  and 
world  peace  should  not  be  a  hard  task.  And  if  the  mission 
should  be  successfully  accomplished,  what  an  effect  will  it  not 
have  upon  the  world,  when  400,000,000  people,  a  quarter  of 
mankind,  champion  the  cause? 

"This  is  our  duty,  and  we  must  try  to  do  it.  I  have  re- 
signed my  office,  but  my  resignation  does  not  mean  that  I  have 
done,  and  am  done,  with  my  duty.  Far  from  it.  Only  here- 
after I  am  going  to  discharge  my  duty  in  the  capacity  of  a 
private  citizen.  It  will  be  my  object  to  help  my  400,000,000 
countrymen,  and  endeavour  to  make  the  blessings  of  the  Re- 
public a  reality." 

365 


He  is  applauded,  and  bows  in  acknowledgment  as  well 
as  farewell.  A  single  appreciative  Assemblyman  rises  and  re- 
turns the  retiring  President's  bow. 

Sun  Yat-sen  takes  the  red  bag  containing  the  seal  of  office 
and  solemnly  places  it  before  the  head  of  the  Assembly. 

One  of  the  members  of  the  Assembly  then  reads  from  a 
yellow  scroll  a  eulogy  on  the  services  which  Sun  Yat-sen  has 
rendered  to  China.  Before  the  band  finishes  another  tune  the 
ex-President  and  ex-Cabinet  have  withdrawn.  Sun  Yat-sen 
has  put  into  effect  the  full  letter  of  his  presidential  oath  and 
of  his  provisional  resignation. 

April  2  the  Nanking  Assembly  by  a  vote  of  20  to  6  au- 
thorised the  transfer  of  the  Provisional  Government  of  China 
from  Nanking  to  Peking,  and  April  3,  accompanied  by  Tang 
Shao-yi,  the  citizen  Revolutionist  Sun  Yat-sen  left  Nanking, 
retracing  the  route  to  Shanghai  by  which  he  had  come  lo  be 
President.  This  man,  unschooled  in  statecraft  and  having 
given  his  life  to  agitation,  conspiracy,  and  organisation  of  re- 
bellion, showed  conspicuous  gifts  as  the  head  of  the.  Republic 
of  China.  Under  the  eyes  of  all  mankind  he  was  calm,  self- 
sacrificing,  and  hopeful.  He  was  an  extremist  among  revolu- 
tionaries. According  to  his  own  words,  he  would  not  hesitate 
to  invoke  the  aid  of  every  engine  of  warfare  to  attain  the 
revolutionary  aim  of  freeing  his  countrymen  from  the  bondage 
of  the  past  represented  by  Manchu  rule.  Yet  his  ideal  was  the 
attainment  of  this  end  without  bloodshed.  He  was  not  alone 
in  his  aim,  but  in  a  country  of  such  large  and  diverse  forces 
working  for  revolution  he  attained  to  the  most  conspicuous 
position  in  the  triumvirate  with  Li  Yuan-hung  and  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai.  He  has  the  best  power  of  the  agitator,  and  he  is  notably 
honest,  making  the  kind  of  impression  most  likely  to  remain, 
that  of  sincerity  and  high  purpose.  He  made  himself  known 
to  all  reformers  inside  his  country,  as  well  as  to  all  the  Chi- 
nese outside  his  country — and  these  are  all  reformers.  He 
pursued  his  aim  for  twenty  years  undaunted,  and  then  realised 
it,  and  his  great  services  were  recognised,  almost  unanimously, 
in  his  election  to  be  first  Republican  President  of  the  federated 
provinces.  He  is  a  prophet  honoured  in  his  own  country. 

366 


t 


SUN  YAT-SEN 
Nanking,  February,  1912 


SUN   YAT-SEN'S    FAREWELL 

Sun  Yat-sen  had  no  large  organisation  in  China,  but  he 
united  the  reformers  on  the  one  side  and  the  conspirators  on 
the  other.  He  realised  his  hopes  by  seizing  and  making  the 
psychological  hour  of  revolt  in  Szechuan  and  at  Wuchang  his 
own.  He  saved  himself  from  the  fate  suffered  by  Kang  Yu- 
wei  and  Liang  Chi-chiao,  who  allowed  reform  and  revolution 
to  get  past  them.  When  the  time  came  for  him  to  give  way, 
to  resign  the  presidency  and  secure  the  selection  of  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai,  the  reform  party  standing  behind  him  that  may 
be  called  his  own,  was  against  him  in  this.  Eminent  Chinese 
abroad,  like  Dr.  Yung  Wing  of  Hartford,  wrote  him  never  to 
trust  Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  Competent  and  influential  foreigners 
shared  these  views.  But  in  the  end  Sun  Yat-sen  trusted  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  in  the  interests  of  the  nation,  secured  his  election 
to  the  presidency,  and  returned  to  the  people  no  longer  an 
outlaw  but — Citizen  Sun  Yat-sen.  As  the  "stone  which  the 
builders  refused"  he  gave  himself  a  country  and  his  country 
a  government. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 

YUAN  SHIH-K'AI 

REPUBLIC  and  Empire  are  formally  welded  in  the  Presi- 
dent, Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  "The  whole  people,"  whose  ris- 
ing, Tsai  Yuan-pei  says,  has  accomplished  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Republic,  are  now  represented  in  one  man. 
How  does  such  a  man,  yesterday  the  hope  of  the  Empire,  with 
such  a  varied  career  as  Imperialist,  represent  the  people? 

A  man  has  arisen  in  the  .wilderness  of  men  where  the  West 
has  said  no  man  existed.  At  the  same  time — that  is,  since 
1900 — Yuan  Shih-k'ai  has  been  hailed  as  "the  one  man." 
There  was  one  Manchu,  the  Empress  [Grand]  Dowager;  there 
was  one  Chinese,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  For  him  the  times  called 
and  he  came.  In  1912  he  is  President  of  the  "Flowery  Re- 
public," the  finished  man  of  fifty-four,  of  pure  Chinese  lineage, 
the  product  of  the  revolutionary  era  in  Eastern  Asia. 

In  1858  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  born,  as  it  were,  under  Mars, 
in  the  midst  of  the  period  (1857-1861)  when  the  Allies  were 
forcing  their  way  by  war  and  negotiations  into  China's  capi- 
tal, Peking,  and  establishing  themselves  there.  I  remember 
him  first  as  the  Governor  of  Shantung,  when  I  arrived  in 
China  in  1900.  He  was  then  executing  Boxers  who  claimed  to 
be  invulnerable  to  bullets.  A  Boxer  delegation  visited  him  at 
his  yamen  in  Tsinan-fu.  It  was  received  with  great  politeness, 
and  Governor  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  listened  to  all  it  had  to  say.  At 
the  conclusion  he  told  the  members  of  the  delegation  that  he 
would  test  their  claims  at  having  achieved  invulnerability  by 
Boxer  rites,  had  them  stood  up  against  a  wall  before  his  sol- 
diers, and  shot. 

I  then  saw  him  on  the  occasion  of  his  arrival  from  Shan- 
tung at  the  end  of  1901,  when  he  came  to  succeed  his  late 
"teacher"  and  patron,  Li  Hung-chang,  as  Viceroy  of  Chihli. 

368 


YUAN    SHIH-K'AI 

He  was  a  handsome  man  of  forty-three,  with  mobile,  swarthy 
face  and  typical  Chinese  drooping  moustache.  He  came  by 
train,  surrounded  by  the  bodyguard  essential  to  the  dignity  of 
a  high  Chinese  official  and  necessary  for  his  protection.  He 
got  off  the  train  at  the  Peking-Hankow  railway  station,  out- 
side the  Ch'ien  Men,  in  his  big  mandarin  clothes  such  as  all 
officials  wear.  His  outer  long  coat  was  of  plum  colour,  with 
the  insignia  of  official  rank  on  the  breast  and  back  such  as  all 
officials  wear — embroidered  animals  for  the  military,  birds 
for  the  civil  officials — and  the  official  round  turban  mounted 
by  a  button  indicating  degree  of  rank.  Preceded  by  mounted 
infantrymen  and  guarded  on  either  side  by  rows  of  foot-sol- 
diers, he  was  carried  away  in  his  chair  to  the  temporary 
quarters  from  which  he  afterwards  went  to  attend  audience 
and  to  thank  the  Throne  for  his  appointment. 

Following  these  ceremonies  and  his  calls  on  the  foreign 
Ministers  at  the  Legations,  I  accompanied  the  party  to  witness 
the  entrance  of  the  new  Viceroy  into  his  vice-regal  Capital. 
Representatives  of  the  administration  of  the  metropolitan  prov- 
ince and  of  the  foreign  Powers  thronged  the  railway  station 
at  Tientsin.  It  is  a  sidelight  on  Chinese  character,  and  upon 
the  idiosyncrasies  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  that  during  the  period 
of  his  rise  to  power  he  kept  four  soldiers  of  uncommon  stat- 
ure as  his  personal  bodyguard  to  impress  the  populace.  He 
passed  in  his  chair,  borne  by  four  chair-bearers,  with  two  of 
these  giants  in  their  plum-coloured  Chinese  uniforms  with 
black  trimmings  and  velvet  boots,  turbans,  and  with  swords 
on  each  side.  The  foreign  civil  and  military  representatives, 
British,  Japanese,  French,  Italian,  and  others,  in  the  uniforms 
of  their  different  services,  saluted,  and  he  returned  their  cour- 
tesies by  bowing  his  head  and  occasionally  saluting  with  his 
hand  in  the  Western  fashion. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  administration  at  Tientsin  was  a  very 
distinguished  one.  He  gave  a  comprehensive  municipal  gov- 
ernment to  the  native  city,  and  a  common  school  system  to 
the  entire  province.  In  the  latter  work  he  selected  the  Ameri- 
can educator,  Dr.  Tenney,  to  organise  the  system.  He  also 
began  the  formation  of  the  metropolitan  army — afterward 

369 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

numbered  at  80,000  men.    The  exercise  of  his  authority  over 
the  masses  at  the  time  is  illustrated  by  the  following: 

In  1902  a  foreign  traveller  had  some  trouble  with  one  of 
the  soldiers  of  this  army.  Complications  resulted  which  em- 
barrassed Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  and  he  had  the  soldier  beheaded. 
The  luckless  soldier,  however,  was  a  man  connected  with  an 
influential  family,  and  in  order  to  hush  the  matter  up,  the 
Viceroy  paid  for  his  rashness  by  giving  taels  30,000  or  40,000 
to  the  injured  family.  The  same  year  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  sent 
troops  and  surrounded  the  town  of  Kuang  Tsun,  in  Southern 
Chihli,  whose  people  had  been  rioting,  and  executed,  as  he 
said,  about  1,000  people.  In  explaining  this  act,  at  Paoting-fu, 
he  said: 

"Foreigners  may  not  think  well  of  me  for  doing  this,  nor 
of  this  method,  but  it  is  my  way." 

His  army  became  more  or  less  completely  foreign-drilled, 
and  by  the  time  he  was  called  to  Peking,  1902,  was  a  reckon- 
able  quantity  in  China's  foreign  affairs.  These  achievements 
mark  the  zenith  of  his  power  and  fame  under  the  Empire.  He 
was  fifty  years  of  age.  September  15,  his  birthday,  the  Em- 
press [Grand]  Dowage.r  sent  him  gifts  whose  value  was  esti- 
mated at  a  fabulous  sum,  unprecedented  in  the  annals  of  Her 
Majesty's  long  reign  in  connection  with  Imperial  favours. 
This  fact  inspired  expressions  of  wonder  in  the  Legation  Quar- 
ter at  so  pronounced  a  partisan  being  shown  so  great  a  mark 
of  Imperial  favour. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  official  career  was  just  twenty-four  years 
old.  It  was  1884  that  he  received  his  first  important  appointment, 
that  of  Director-General  of  Trade  and  International  Relations 
in  Korea,  and  took  up  his  post  at  Seoul.  He  succeeded  the 
Manchu  Tartar  General  in  charge  of  Chinese  troops  there 
after  international  troubles  in  1882,  the  year  Korea  was  opened 
by  the  American  Treaty  to  international  trade.  Complications 
wjth  the  Japanese  in  1884  enabled  him  to  get  their  troops  out 
of  Korea  and  force  them  into  the  background,  after  which  he 
consulted  with  his  patron  Li  Hung-chang  at  Tientsin  as  to 

37° 


YUAN    SHIH-K'AI 

the  future  policy  for  excluding  Japan  from  interference  in 
Korea's  internal  affairs,  with  the  result  that  he  was  promoted 
to  a  higher  rank.  October  3,  1885,  ne  returned  to  Seoul  as 
Imperial  Chinese  "Resident,"  a  term  conforming  with  that 
applied  to  the  Imperial  representatives  at  Lhassa  in  Tibet 
and  at  Urga  in  Mongolia. 

From  that  day  until  he  went  to  Hsiao-kan  and  Niekou  to 
negotiate  a  compromise  with  General  Li  Yuan-hung  Novem- 
ber, 1911,  the  man  now  President  of  China  was  never  farther 
from  the  scene  of  his  official  triumphs — Chihli  Province — than 
when  at  Seoul.  He  never  went  abroad,  knew  no  foreign  lan- 
guage, and  was  without  any  special  literary  attainments  such 
as  generally  distinguish  the  mandarins  of  China.  An  Ameri- 
can diplomat  at  Seoul  who  knew  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  during  the 
period  of  his  official  service  there,  1884-1894,  in  words  which 
deserve  to  be  invested  with  permanency,  as  expressing  a  for- 
eigner's observations,  says : 

"Nobody  understands  the  meaning  of  the  term  arrogance 
who  didn't  know  Yuan  in  those  years.  He  was  arrogance 
personified.  He  would  not  meet  or  associate  with  the  Minis- 
ters of  other  Powers  unless  he  was  allowed  to  occupy  a  sort 
of  throne  and  'receive'  them  as  though  they  were  vassal  en- 
voys. At  a  Korean  state  dinner  he  always  occupied  the  foot 
[one  end]  of  the  table,  which  then  became  the  head.  He  rode 
the  half-mile  through  the  Palace  from  the  gates  to  the  audi- 
ence hall  in  his  chair,  and  had  his  interview  first,  while  the  rest 
of  us  waited  outside,  after  walking  all  that  distance  through 
the  mud. 

"He  was  in  my  time  just  a  big,  brutal,  sensual,  rollicking 
Chinaman.  Having  vast  powers,  he  frequently  cut  off  the 
heads  of  Chinese  gamblers  and  others,  and  I  was  an  unwilling 
witness  of  some  of  these  street-side  pastimes  of  his.  He  would 
imprison  Korean  gentlemen  who  objected  to  parting  with  their 
ancestral  estates  in  order  that  they  might  be  used  to  enlarge 
Yuan's  palatial  Legation.  He  would  not  let  a  physician  save 
the  life  of  one  of  his  soldiers  in  the  emeute  [1884]  by  ampu- 
tating his  arm,  saying,  'Of  what  good  would  a  one-armed  sol- 

371 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

dier  be?'  Yet  he  kept  as  a  pensioner  another  soldier  whose 
life  was  saved  but  who  was  useless  as  a  trooper.  He  was 
extremely  quick,  quite  fearless,  very  rash,  yet  given  to  consul- 
tation with  Tang  Shao-yi  and  others,  and  therefore  inclined 
to  be  reasonable.  He  was  altogether  unscrupulous,  but  abso- 
lutely faithful  and  devoted  to  his  patron  and  largely  to  his 
friends.  He  would  sacrifice  an  enemy  or  one  who  stood  in 
his  way,  but  would  at  the  same  time  sacrifice  himself  readily 
for  his  patron." 

These  are  the  spirited  words  of  an  opponent  and  experi- 
enced observer  about  which  there  need  be  no  question  unless 
with  respect  to  those  internal  details  of  which  it  is  always 
hopeless  in  the  Orient  to  get  complete  information  and  evi- 
dence. 

When  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  went  to  Seoul  he  was  a  young  man 
of  twenty-six.  As  the  keeper  of  the  door  of  the  continent 
through  which  China's  great  antagonist  was  to  enter,  he  pos- 
sessed some  of  the  best  qualities  of  youth — vigour,  daring,  and 
self-sacrifice,  but  he  had  more  the  qualities  of  a  soldier  than 
those  of  a  civil  mandarin  or  statesman,  and  as  he  could  not 
draw  upon  the  resources  of  experience  all  that  could  have 
served  him  was  the  essential  resources  of  an  occult  sense,  an 
intuition.  This  he  did  not.  have. 

From  the  moment  he  showed  his  high-handedness  in  the 
entente  of  1884,  Japan  began  preparing  for  war.  Knowing 
full  well  from  experience  that  China  would  violate  her  pledges, 
Japan  arranged  a  convention  the  following  year  by  which  the 
two  Powers  agreed  not  to  land  troops  in  Korea  without  first 
informing  each  other.  It  is  charged  against  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
that  when  an  opportunity  came,  1894,  he  broke  the  convention 
by  calling  for  Chinese  troops  to  suppress  a  Korean  uprising, 
and  thus  he  fell  into  a  Japanese  trap,  bringing  about  a  casus 
belli. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  giving  an  official  dinner  when  he 
learned  of  the  starting  of  the  troops  for  Korea.  The  informa- 
tion came  in  telegrams  received  by  him  and  his  Japanese  offi- 
cial guests  as  well.  The  news  broke  up  the  dinner.  The 

372 


YUAN    SHIH-K'AI 

actions  of  the  self-satisfied  Japanese  were  so  suspicious  that 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai  took  alarm  and  immediately  fled  from  Seoul, 
without  waiting  to  remove  his  mother  and  concubines,  who 
were  left  in  the  care  of  some  of  his  associates. 

Li  Hung-chang,  who  was  directing  from  Tientsin  these 
state  affairs  against  Japan  and  had  succeeded  in  drawing 
America  into  the  complications,  was  evidently  relying  upon 
success  in  war  with  Japan.  War  came  in  ten  years,  and  its 
outbreak  has  always  been  attributed  to  the  arrogance  at  Seoul 
of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  As  Japan  came  off  an  easy  victor,  Yuan 
proved  to  have  been  the  wrong  man  at  the  door.  But  these 
ten  years  of  crass  error  and  its  consequences  were  the  making 
of  him. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  thirty-six  when  he  got  back  to  Tien- 
tsin, and  he  was  thirty-seven  when  the  treaty  of  Shimonoseki 
was  signed  ending  the  war  with  Japan.  For  three  years  he 
is  not  mentioned  in  the  official  lists  of  the  Empire,  but  July, 
1897,  the  fact  that  he  becomes  Judicial  Commissioner  for 
Chihli  indicates  that  he  is  an  older  and  much  wiser  man.  At 
the  same  time  it  shows  the  interesting  fact  that  he  has  not 
lost  prestige  with  his  patron  Li  Hung-chang  and  is  making 
friends  and  alliances. 

September,  1898,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  given  the  rank  of 
Vice-President  of  a  Board  [one  of  the  departments  of  the 
Central  Government]  and  the  control  of  an  army  corps.  That 
he  had  made  good  use  of  his  experience  in  Korea  was  shown 
by  the  fact  that  he  turned  his  attention  with  great  energy  to 
building  up  an  army  on  foreign  military  lines.  June,  1899, 
he  received  an  actual  appointment  as  Vice-President  in  the 
Board  of  Works,  December,  1899,  became  Acting-Governor 
of  Shantung,  and  March,  1900,  Governor. 

September,  1908,  at  the  time  of  which  I  am  speaking,  when 
his  services  and  abilities  are  recognised  by  the  Empress 
[Grand]  Dowager,  foreign  observers  and  students  of  Chinese 
history  and  character  speak  of  him  as  the  only  man  Chinese 
or  Manchu  visible,  who  can  be  called  a  statesman  and  placed 
in  that  rank  among  the  men  of  nations. 

In  twenty-four  years  he  has  been  hammered  from  a  rash 

373 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

young  soldier  into  a  statesman.  He  started  with  the  metal 
of  strong  character,  intelligence,  and  amenability  to  persua- 
sion, and  developed  a  judicial  mind  and  power  of  decision. 
The  latter  quality  is  that  which  impresses  foreigners  most, 
for  the  reason  that  that  quality  is  almost  lacking  in  Chinese 
diplomacy  and  is  undoubtedly  the  one  which  more  than  any- 
thing else  draws  from  them  the  tribute  of  "statesman." 

At  the  time  of  his  birthday  celebration,  September,  1908, 
he  occupied  the  very  pinnacle  of  his  fame  under  the  Empire. 
He  was  the  acknowledged  mentor  of  the  Dynasty.  He  was 
living,  for  the  summer,  at  Hai  Tien,  a  village  near  the  Sum- 
mer Palace,  where  he  had  taken  a  villa  in  order  to  be  near  the 
Court.  It  was  here  that  I  called  to  felicitate  him  upon  his 
fiftieth  birthday  and  talk  about  China,  the  last  time  I  saw  him 
under  the  Empire.  September  14  he  sent  word  that  he  would 
like  to  see  me  at  the  "Kua  Chia  T'un" — his  villa — on  Friday, 
September  18,  at  2  P.M.  But  on  account  of  the  festivities  con- 
nected with  his  birthday  and  the  unexpected  attention,  from 
the  nobility  and  officialdom  generally,  excited  by  the  honour 
shown  him  by  the  Empress  Dowager,  the  date  had  to  be  post- 
poned. For  several  days  he  was  involved  in  audiences  at 
Court  and  journeys  back  and  forth  between  his  villa  and  the 
City  to  attend  the  trying  affairs  of  Manchuria,  active  at  the 
time,  and  his  social  duties  to  the  princes  and  others  who  were 
calling  on  him  and  following  up  the  example  set  by  the  Em- 
press [Grand]  Dowager.  He  was  the  man  of  the  hour.  Even 
foreigners  hastened  to  recognise  the  Empress  [Grand]  Dow- 
ager's stamp  of  importance  given  him.  His  whole  life  was 
brought  under  inspection  to  see  wherein  this  greatness  lay. 

Personally,  I  was  disappointed.  He  did  not  look  the  part. 
He  was  somewhat  corpulent.  He  sat  in  his  chair  like  one 
reared  in  the  saddle,  with  his  knees  wide  apart  like  a  Mongol. 
He  was  like  a  small-rank  military  official  in  aspect.  He  had 
bright,  penetrating  eyes  which  he  flashed  on  the  Chinese  sec- 
retary present  with  a  message  that  unmistakably  said:  "Get 
that  exactly  right.  Be  careful  what  you  say."  These  eyes 
were  rather  prominent  and  began  to  show  a  bulging  effect  that 
was  already  increased  by  years.  He  did  not  look  fifty,  was 

374 


YUAN    SHIH-K'AI 

very  active  considering  his  weight,  but  he  had  undoubtedly 
lost  the  good  looks  of  his  middle  age.  Pushed  back  on  his 
head  was  his  little  round  Chinese  mao-tzu,  or  hat.  His  black, 
drooping  moustache  was  marked  a  little  with  grey  and  had 
already  commenced  to  straggle.  His  clear  and  swarthy  skin 
was  clouded  and  somewhat  more  than  suggested  the  high  liv- 
ing with  which  he  was  charged. 

Twenty-four  years  after  his  youthful  mistakes  at  Seoul 
he  showed  traces  of  character  that  made  the  foreign  diplomat's 
observations  of  him  when  he  first  arrived  there  appear  so  fair. 
But  all  was  toned  down  into  an  agreeable  maturity. 

The  embers  of  his  youthful  arrogance  showed  in  the  way 
in  which  he  still  clasped  his  hands  to  his  knees  and  threw 
up  his  shoulders  and  head.  It  gave  him  the  air  of  the  sultans 
of  Central  Asia. 

The  moment  that  marked  the  heyday  of  his  favour  was 
at  the  same  time  the  beginning  of  his  decline. 

He  had  not  been  at  Court  a  year  before  the  metropolitan 
glare  that  dims  the  brightest  star  from  the  provinces  had  made 
him  but  a  common  luminary.  In  the  fierce  light  radiating 
from  Peking  official  strife  the  weaknesses  in  his  armour  and 
the  tarnishable  qualities  that  exist  in  every  reputation  were 
exposed  to  common  view.  The  heaping  of  gifts  upon  him  by 
the  Empress  [Grand]  Dowager  was  the  signal  for  attacks  by 
his  enemies.  Those  gifts  were  something  like  a  millstone  about 
his  neck. 

Coincident  with  the  lavishing  of  Imperial  approval  upon 
him  a  censor  named  Chiang  Ch'un-lin  brought  impeachment 
charges  against  him,  and  was  joined  in  the  indictment  by 
Liang  Ting-fen,  Provincial  Judge  in  Hupeh.  The  latter  dis- 
closed what  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  detractors  thought  of  him.  "His 
favourite  pastimes,"  says  Liang  Ting-fen,  "in  his  youth  were 
horse-riding  and  fencing,  and  he  was  not  a  man  of  education." 
The  accuser  then  proceeds  to  explain  how  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  has 
risen  to  power  through  the  patronage  of  Jung  Lu,  a  favourite 
of  the  Empress  [Grand]  Dowager,  and  by  bribing  Prince 
Ching,  whom  he  says  at  first  on  three  different  occasions  re- 
fused to  receive  Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  Prince  Ching  being  a  weak 

375 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

man  naturally,  and  his  expenses  being  very  heavy,  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai  took  advantage  of  him.  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  after  ingratiating 
himself  at  Court  then  secured  high  positions  for  his  hench- 
men. These  henchmen  are  all  enumerated  by  the  accuser,  who 
warns  the  Court  that  it  ought  to  be  alarmed  at  the  great 
military  authority  exercised  by  Yuan  and  his  proteges  in 
Chihli  a*nd  Manchuria.  Finally,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  compared 
with  Ts'ao  Ts'ao  the  arch-traitor  of  the  Han  Dynasty  and  one 
of  the  three  most  execrated  characters  in  Chinese  history. 

What  was  not  expressed  in  impeachments  came  out  in  the 
Chinese  Press.  Here  he  is  made  responsible  for  all  of  China's 
misfortunes,  which  he  germinated  in  the  China-Japan  War 
and  caused  to  blossom  in  the  coup  d'etat  of  1898.  It  was  be- 
cause of  him  that  China's  existence  was  well-nigh  terminated 
in  1900  by  the  Boxer  uprising,  when  he  drove  the  Boxers  out 
of  Shajitung  into  Chihli,  thus  forcing  them  on  to  Peking.  And 
it  was  through  the  Russo-Japanese  War,  to  which  Boxerism 
led,  that  Manchuria  practically  passed  into  the  hands  of  aliens. 

But  for  the  China-Japan  War  China's  weaknesses  would 
not  have  been  immediately  discovered ;  but  for  the  coup  d'etat, 
reforms  would  have  succeeded  and  in  ten  years  China  might 
have  taken  rank  with  first-class  Powers.  With  the  Japan- 
China  War  thousands  perished  and  China's  national  prestige  of 
thousands  of  years.  For  this  would  not  the  people  have  liked 
to  taste  his  flesh?  However,  the  Emperor  whom  he  traduced 
showed  him  unprecedented  favour  which  could  not  be  repaid 
had  he  died  on  horseback  on  the  battlefield.  But  he  sold  his 
master  for  glory  and  did  not  play  his  part. 

The  clamour  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  detractors  induced  the 
Empress  [Grand]  Dowager  to  command  him  to  clear  himself 
of  the  charges  lodged  against  him,  and  the  Throne  issued  an 
edict  appointing  Prince  Pu  Lun  and  Grand  Secretary  Sun 
Chia-nai  to  investigate,  principally,  the  indictment  made  by 
Censor  Chiang  Ch'un-ling  to  the  effect  that  Yuan  usurped  all 
governmental  power  and  was  ruling  like  an  absolute  despot 
against  whom  nobody  could  achieve  his  purpose.  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai  was  forced  to  excuse  himself  from  Court  by  asking  two 
weeks'  sick  leave. 

376 


YUAN    SHIH-K'AI 

The  charges  against  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  were  just  such  as 
could  be  brought  against  any  Chinese  or  Manchu  official  and 
he  would  have  survived  them  with  an  undiminished  influence 
and  power  had  the  Empress  [Grand]  Dowager  lived.  China 
needed  him,  and  the  Empress  [Grand]  Dowager  needed  him, 
for  she  was  growing  old.  The  impeachments  were  preceded 
by  scandal.  He  was  charged  with  having  too  large  a  house- 
hold— rumour  said  more  than  a  score  of  concubines.  This 
was  not  considered  an  immorality  in  itself  and  would  not  have 
been  thought  worth  mentioning  in  connection  with  an  official 
of  less  importance.  His  opponents  considered  that  there  had 
not  been  anyone  equal  to  him  in  power  during  the  whole  Man- 
chu era,  not  excepting  his  patron,  Li  Hung-chang. 

The  three  most  exciting  months  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  life 
to  date  had  their  beginning  in  these  September  birthday  fes- 
tivities in  his  villa  at  Hai  Tien.  For  six  weeks  he  withstood 
the  attack  of  his  political  opponents.  At  the  end  of  this  time 
the  Emperor  and  his  Imperial  protector,  the  august  Empress 
[Grand]  Dowager,  suddenly  died.  In  another  six  weeks  he 
was  a  fallen  idol.  He  disappeared  in  three  days  and  his  place 
knew  him  no  more.  In  a  week  he  had  been  lost  completely 
in  the  maelstrom  of  the  new  reign. 

The  event  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  fall  was  not  uncommon 
to  China,  which  passed  serenely  on  to  the  next  event.  Only 
foreign  observers  paused  to  examine  the  merits  and  demerits 
of  the  fallen.  It  was  remarked  by  many  that  he  had  missed 
the  opportunity  to  seize  the  State  and  save  it.  Although 
he  was  a  self-made  man,  he  was  charged  with  lack  of  deter- 
mination and  energy  such  as  would  have  enabled  him  to  over- 
come his  enemies  and  prove  himself  a  leader.  Though  he  had 
good  sense  and  political  ability  it  was  said  that  he  had  not 
the  strength  to  resist  the  enervating  pleasures  of  life.  He 
had  not  followed  the  self-denial  of  his  teacher  Li  Hung-chang, 
but  early  in  life  had  capitulated  to  the  seductions  of  the  harem 
system.  On  the  other  hand,  ability,  administrative  capacity, 
and  understanding  of  constitutional  government  and  of  for- 
eign affairs,  together  with  energy,  will-power,  and  decision, 
were  merits  attributed  to  him. 

377 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

It  was  a  fact  that  he  was  the  prop  of  China's  credit 
abroad  and  the  creator  of  the  only  policy  toward  the  Powers 
that  China  ever  possessed.  He  rescued  the  Foreign  Office 
from  ridicule  and  made  it  a  workable  body.  The  successful 
management  of  the  succession  to  the  Throne  upon  the  demise 
of  the  Emperor  and  .that  of  his  august  patron  the  Empress 
[Grand]  Dowager,  was  attributed  to  him  by  the  best-in- 
formed foreigners.  "He  was  the  first  to  show  China  the 
practical  way  to  reform." 

As  he  was  leaving  Peking  the  bitterness  in  his  heart  was 
expressed  in  these  words  to  those  around  him : 

"Now  we  shall  see  how  they  manage.  Even  if  they  send 
for  me  to  put  things  right  for  them  I  shall  not  come  out 
again." 

Following  this  all  that  is  heard  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  is  anec- 
dotes of  his  life  in  his  retirement  at  Weihui-fu  in  Honan, 
where  he  is  reported  as  saying: 

"I  am  quite  able  to  confront  my  heart  with  Heaven  above ; 
posterity  will  decide  upon  the  justness  of  my  cause." 

He  has  a  little  estate  the  improvement  of  which  together 
with  the  interests  of  his  family  occupies  his  time.  His  diver- 
sion is  fishing.  He  sits  in  a  boat  at  the  edge  of  the  rushes  in 
the  most  approved  style  of  the  ancients,  with  a  common  reed, 
peaked  hat  of  the  people  on  his  head  and  a  mantle  of  rush 
leaves  to  shield  him  from  the  sun  and  rain.  Compared  with 
the  fustian  and  consequence  of  official  life  it  is  a  life  of  soli- 
tude, almost  melancholy.  He  shuns  publicity  and  receives  few 
visitors — only  family  friends.  He  is  content  with  the  simple 
life  of  a  country  gentleman,  without  the  mass  of  servants  his 
household  so  long  required.  He  is  a  great  man  and  his  regret 
is  not  personal  so  much  as  on  account  of  the  State.  He  is 
aware  of  the  impossibilities  connected  with  statesmanship  in 
Peking  under  the  Regent  and  appreciates  the  opportunities  of 
his  new  life.  Much  of  his  thought  and  anxiety  are  for  an 
invalid  brother  for  whom  he  seeks  medical  aid.  He  brings 
foreign  physicians  who  come  with  electrical  batteries  and 
other  treatments,  from  Tientsin.  He  gives  similar  care  to  the 
rest  of  his  household.  He  feels  the  deprivation  of  his  old 

378 


YUAN    SHIH-K'AI 

associates  and  assistants,  especially  of  Tang  Shao-yi,  who  was 
with  him  in  Korea  and  whom  foreigners  as  well  as  Chinese 
have  said  made  Yuan  what  he  is. 

"In  a  certain  sense  this  is  true,"  one  who  knows  him  writes 
me,  "for  in  the  early  days  in  Korea  when  Yuan  was  new  to 
everything,  Tang  certainly  informed  him  and  enlightened  him 
on  many  of  the  things  that  belong  to  the  Western  world,  and 
Yuan  conceived  a  very  warm  affection  for  Tang;  I  would  go 
so  far  as  to  say  the  only  real  affection  the  man  ever  knew,  for 
there  was  no  one  of  his  family  or  harem  who  occupied  the 
place  Tang  occupied.  His  influence  was  so  great  that  we  were 
wont  to  say  it  amounted  to  a  sort  of  hypnotism.  It  was  good 
for  Yuan  to  have  a  soft  spot  in  his  heart,  which  is  necessarily 
taken  up  with  matters  of  state  and  diplomacy — not  the  best 
atmosphere  for  growing  the  finer  graces." 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 
THE  PRESIDENT,  THE  NATION,  AND  THE  WORLD 

DURING  his  retirement  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  has  been  com- 
pared with  Achilles  sulking  in  his  tent,  and  with  Bis- 
marck glowering  in  his  library.     Naturally  his  mind 
reverts  to  old  battle-fields,  for  they  are  his  life  and  character, 
and  the  whole  substance  of  his  relation  to  the  world,  to  the 
nation,  the  presidency,  and  all  his  future. 

The  great  events  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  life  have  been  the 
clash  with  Japan,  1894,  the  coup  d'etat,  1898,  and  his  dismissal, 
1909.  They  are  all  living  issues.  In  his  responsibilities  as 
President  they  meet  him  wherever  he  may  turn.  What  he  is 
in  the  "Flowery  Republic"  and  in  the  world  is  comprehensively 
shown  in  these  events  and  their  effects.  The  last  goes  back 
to  the  first.  His  dismissal  by  the  Throne  takes  us  in  an  instant 
to  Seoul  and  the  now  quarter-of-a-century-old  and  still  unfor- 
gotten  warfare  between  the  two  nationalities,  Chinese  and 
Japanese,  and  to  what  the  American  diplomat  calls  the  arro- 
gance which  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  exercised  over  the  Ministers  of 
the  Powers  there.  This  was  something  which  that  diplomat 
says  Yuan  "knew  quite  well  to  be  as  distasteful  to  the  King 
of  Korea  [who  was  forced  by  Yuan]  ...  as  it  was  to  us, 
particularly  to  the  Japanese  Minister,  whom  Yuan  treated  with 
marked  contempt.  .  .  .  As  late  as  October  6,  1893,  the  Japa- 
nese Minister  was  afraid  to  join  us  in  refusing  to  attend  an 
audience  with  the  King  unless  allowed  to  ride  into  the  Palace 
as  did  Yuan  Shih-k'ai — an  action  which  he  so  heartily  ap- 
proved." The  sequel  to  these  initial  relations  between  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  and  the  Japanese  was  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  flight  from 
Seoul,  the  Japanese  Minister's  entry  to  audience  with  the 
King  thereafter  in  a  horse-drawn  carriage,  on  equality  with 
the  highest,  and  the  final  annexation  of  Korea  by  Japan. 
The  last  antagonist  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  saw  as  he  left  the  stage 


THE  PRESIDENT,  THE  NATION,  AND  WORLD 

of  Peking  at  the  time  of  his  dismissal,  January  2,  1909,  was 
Japan,  who  rose  up  on  that  occasion  of  China's  wretched 
weakness  to  deal  both  another  blow.  At  that  time  Tang  Shao- 
yi  as  special  financial  envoy  was  about  to  arrive  in  Washing- 
ton, sent  by  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  to  secure  $50,000,000  American 
capital  with  which  to  establish  uniform  currency  in  China  and 
strengthen  the  country.  His  mission  was  regarded  by  Japan 
as  inimical  to  her  interests  in  China  and  she  was  opposed  to 
it.  She  therefore  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  pro- 
mote at  Washington  an  exchange  of  notes  between  the  two 
Governments  expressing  mutual  confidence.  This  was  tele- 
graphed in  advance  by  Japan  to  Peking  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  embarrass  China's  envoy  to  Washington,  and  discredit 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  his  patron  and  sponsor  for  the  mission. 

Japanese  action  in  using  the  exchange  of  notes  between 
the  United  States  and  Japan  to  forestall  Tang  Shao-yi  and 
discredit  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  a  weight  thrown  in  the  balance 
against  Yuan.  Japan's  notification  to  China  of  Japan's  under- 
standing arrived  at  with  America  reached  Peking  two  days 
before  Yuan's  dismissal.  It  is  likely  that  only  Japan  was 
aware  of  the  impending  bolt.  All  the  other  Powers  were  sur- 
prised and  alarmed  when  it  came.  The  edict  read:  "Yuan 
Shih-k'ai,  Grand  Councillor  of  State  and  Senior  Vice-Presi- 
dent of  the  [Chinese]  Foreign  Office,  has  received  rapid  pro- 
motion during  the  reign  of  their  late  August  Majesties,  the 
Empress  [Grand]  Dowager  and  the  Emperor,  and  after  Our 
Accession  to  the  Throne  We  were  supported  by  his  inestimable 
assistance,  for  he  really  has  remarkable  talent. 

"Unfortunately,  now  he  is  suffering  from  rheumatism  of 
the  leg.  He  walks  with  difficulty  and  We  believe  it  is  impos- 
sible that  he  can  carry  out  his  functions ;  therefore  We  place 
him  on  the  unattached  list  and  authorise  him  to  return  to  his 
native  place  so  that  he  may  nurse  himself  to  health.  Thus  We 
manifest  to  him  Our  clemency." 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  position  in  Peking  was  this :  After  the 
China-Japan  War,  when  Li  Hung-chang  left  Tientsin,  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  ingratiated  himself  with  Li  Hung-chang's  successor, 
Jung  Lu,  under  whom  he  held  command  of,  and  developed, 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

Chihli's  modern-drilled  army  corps.  Jung  Lu  died  1903,  and 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai  promoted  his  own  interests  with  Prince  Ching, 
as  a  compensating  support  to  that  of  the  Empress  [Grand] 
Dowager.  He  now  had  the  Manchus,  except  the  Empress 
[Grand]  Dowager  and  Prince  Ching,  against  him,  as  well  as 
those  Chinese  partisan  sympathisers  with  the  late  Emperor 
Kuang  Hsu,  one  of  .whom  was  the  Censor  Chiang  Ch'un-lin. 
Of  his  own  party  none  were  nearer  to  Peking  than  his  succes- 
sor at  Tientsin,  the  Viceroy  Yang  Hsi-hsiang.  His  great  op- 
ponents in  power  were  the  Prince  Regent,  Na  Tung,  his  asso- 
ciate Vice-President  of  the  Foreign  Office,  and  Tieh  Liang, 
Minister  of  War.  Grand  Councillor  Chang  Chih-tung,  China's 
foremost  Confucian  scholar,  was  not  unfavourable  to  him  but 
was  helpless,  and  was  as  much  surprised  at  his  dismissal  as 
anyone. 

December  31,  1908,  the  Throne  granted  a  princely  title 
to  Prince  Ching  as  a  bribe  to  quiet  the  old  Minister.  The 
Prince  Regent  received  in  audience  the  Censor  who  had  im- 
peached Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  January  I,  1909,  the  Prince  sub- 
mitted an  edict  to  the  Grand  Council  for  approval,  reported  to 
be  a  cancellation  of  the  offences  of  the  reformer  Kang  Yu- 
wei  in  connection  with  the  reform  movement  of  1898.  It  was 
disapproved  by  Prince  Ching  and  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  and  was 
withdrawn.  Both  Councillors  knew  what  they  might  expect 
from  this  attempt  to  rehabilitate  the  fame  of  the  late  Emperor's 
reform  party,  against  which  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  held  to  be 
an  enemy.  Prince  Ching  was  not  deceived  by  the  Prince  Re- 
gent's gift  to  him,  but  on  the  other  hand  alarmed.  To  protest 
against  the  honour,  he  called  on  the  Prince  Regent,  who  as- 
sumed a  lofty  attitude,  said  it  was  his  plan,  and  the  Prince 
should  accept  what  he  had  received  and  be  satisfied.  The  old 
Prince  retired  to  his  home  ill  and  remained  there.  January  2, 
when  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  at  the  Foreign  Office  (Wai-wu-pu), 
he  received  a  circular  summoning  the  Grand  Councillors  to  au- 
dience. He  went  to  the  council  hall.  As  he  was  about  to 
enter  he  was  informed  that  his  presence  was  not  required, 
tje  immediately  hurried  home  and  sent  the  women  of  his 
family  by  evening  train  to  Tientsin.  The  Prince  Regent  at 

382 


THE  PRESIDENT,  THE  NATION,  AND  WORLD 

the  council  hall  laid,  signed  and  sealed,  before  the  astonished 
Councillors,  the  edict  of  dismissal,  forbade  discussion,  and 
asked  the  Councillors  to  sign  it.  Not  all  of  them  were  present, 
and  Prince  Ching's  name  was  attached  to  it  with  the  check 
opposite  denoting  his  absence. 

January  2,  ten  minutes  to  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
the  foreign  Ministers  became  aware  of  the  edict  of  dismissal, 
and  in  two  hours  the  British,  German,  and  American  Ministers 
were  in  conference  at  the  British  Legation,  and  held  another 
conclave  in  the  evening  with  representatives  of  other  Powers 
included.  It  was  apparent  that  Japan  was  aware  of  the 
Prince  Regent's  programme  and  that  she  was  the  doubtful  ele- 
ment in  the  situation. 

The  British  and  American  Ministers  agreed  that  the  dis- 
missal of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  should  not  pass  unnoticed  by  the 
Powers.  January  3  they  met  with  the  German  and  Japanese 
Ministers  and  submitted  an  outline  of  representations  to  be 
made  to  the  Chinese  Foreign  Office.  All  agreed  that  peace 
and  international  interests  were  in  danger,  but  Japan  dis- 
sented from  any  action  on  the  ground  that  foreign  interests 
were  not  technically  involved,  and  that  therefore  foreign  action 
would  not  be  justified.  In  this  she  was  joined  by  Germany. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  fled  to  Tientsin  and  took  refuge  in  the 
British  settlement,  at  the  Astor  House  Hotel.  The  Court 
and  Grand  Council  took  alarm  at  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  flight  and 
the  activity  of  the  foreign  Ministers,  and  a  messenger,  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai's  own  son,  was  sent  after  him  with  assurances  that 
the  Grand  Council  would  guarantee  his  safety  if  he  would 
return.  The  Grand  Councillors  who  framed  this  message 
pointed  out  that  they  had  been  ordered  to  comply  with  the 
edict  of  dismissal,  and  explained  that  China  would  be  in  dan- 
ger from  the  Powers  if  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  by  remaining  away 
confirmed  erroneous  impressions  of  the  real  situation. 

Prince  Ching's  signature  to  this  appeal  gave  confidence 
to  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  and  he  returned  at  once  to  Peking.  His 
family  followed  on  Monday,  and  Tuesday,  January  5,  he  left 
by  special  train  for  Weihui-fu,  Honan. 

The  Chinese  Press  was  almost  unanimous  in  stating  that 

383 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

the  dismissal  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  due  to  his  part  in  the 
coup  d'etat,  1898,  by  which  the  Emperor's  reform  party  and 
its  programme  was  defeated  through  what  the  reformers 
called  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  treachery.  This  reason  was  so  given 
out  to  all  the  newspapers  in  Peking.  His  impeachment,  which 
according  to  reports  embraced  12  to  32  counts,  was  under- 
stood to  have  been  framed  on  charges  referring  to  this  event. 
The  Prince  Regent  had  accepted  these  charges  and  he  let  it 
be  known  that  he  was  determined  not  to  continue  to  take  part 
in  the  government  of  China  with  Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  It  was  true 
that  the  late  Emperor  Kuang  Hsu  until  his  death  nursed 
against  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  a  resentment.  A  persistent  circum- 
stantial story  declares  this  was  embodied  in  a  valedictory  com- 
mand written  on  his  death-bed  by  Kuang  Hsu  holding  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  responsible  for  the  failure  of  the  reform  movement 
and  leaving  it  as  an  obligation  upon  his  survivors  to  see  that 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  offences  go  not  unpunished.  A  more  im- 
portant fact  was  that  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  was  an  obstacle  to  the 
reapportionment  of  Imperial  patronage  for  the  benefit  of  the 
numerous  impecunious  members  of  the  Prince  Regent's  fam- 
ily and  that  of  the  new  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager.  He  was 
an  obstacle  to  the  monopolising  by  the  original  reform  party 
of  what  its  successor,  the  general  reform  movement,  held  to  be 
its  rightful  inheritance  under  Kuang  Hsu.  The  charges 
brought  to  accomplish  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  elimination  were  dic- 
tated not  by  patriotism  but  by  jealousy  and  greed,  and  the 
weak  Prince  Regent  and  hysterical  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dow- 
ager [who  was  daily  wailing  at  her  Emperor's  bier]  were 
not  strong  enough  to  withstand  the  temptation  for  ven- 
geance. 

The  wretched  imbecility  of  their  act  was  not  strong  enough 
to  provoke  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  to  his  own  defence. 

Thirteen  years  he  kept  silence — until  November,  1911. 
Coincident  with  his  return  to  office  in  Peking,  in  response  to 
appeals  from  the  Throne  to  save  the  State,  he  gave  to  the 
world  the  first  explanation  of  the  1898  episode,  showing  that 
the  ostensible  charges  on  which  his  dismissal  was  accom- 
plished were  without  an  essential  basis.  To  set  posterity 

384 


THE  PRESIDENT,  THE  NATION,  AND  WORLD 

right,  as  the  last  survivor  on  the  Imperial  side,  he  said  in  sub- 
stance, as  given  to  Dr.  Morrison : 

"On  the  night  of  September  18,  1898,  the  reformer  Tan 
Tzu-t.ung,  one  of  the  Kang  Yu-wei  party,  and  secretary  of 
the  Grand  Council,  called  on  me.  The  main  facts  of  the  plot 
on  which  he  was  bent  are  well  known,  but  the  statements 
published  in  the  public  Press  purporting  to  describe  my  par- 
ticipation in  it  are  largely  misrepresentations  of  facts.  The 
reform  party  led  by  Kang  Yu-wei,  considering  that  the  Em- 
press [Grand]  Dowager  and  the  Viceroy  of  Chihli,  Jung  Lu, 
blocked  the  way  of  their  reforms,  conspired  for  their  removal. 
Jung  Lu  was  to  be  put  to  death  in  his  yamen  at  Tientsin,  and 
the  Empress  [Grand]  Dowager  was  to  be  interned  as  a  State 
prisoner.  My  progressive  views  being  well  known,  I  was  to 
execute  these  plans.  I  was  to  go  to  Tientsin,  put  Jung  Lu, 
my  patron  and  benefactor,  to  death,  and  then  immediately 
return  to  Peking  with  my  corps  of  foreign-drilled  troops,  and 
there  seize  and  imprison  the  Empress  [Grand]  Dowager. 

"After  ordering  all  the  servants  out  of  the  room,  and 
after  a  few  words  of  introduction,  Tan  Tzu-tung  denounced 
Jung  Lu  in  scathing  terms,  and  laid  this  plan  before  me,  say- 
ing that  it  had  the  Emperor's  consent  and  approval.  He  pro- 
duced a  rough  draft  of  the  plot,  written  in  ordinary  black  ink, 
and  invited  my  co-operation. 

"I  replied  that  there  was  no  Imperial  Order  for  me  to 
undertake  the  task. 

"Tan  Tzu-tung  said  that  on  the  2Oth  a  secret  Order  from 
the  Emperor  would  surely  be  given.  On  my  further  objecting 
that  such  a  plan  could  not  be  executed  suddenly  but  needed 
mature  deliberation  and  a  'Vermilion  Decree,'  Tan  said : 

'  'I  have  the  Imperial  Order  with  me/  and  forthwith 
handed  me  a  document  in  black  ink,  neatly  written,  in  a  style 
couched  in  the  tone  of  the  Emperor.  It  stated  that  His  Maj- 
esty was  bent  on  reform,  but  since  conservative  opposition 
was  met  everywhere,  Yang  Jui,  Liu  Kuang-ti,  Lin  Hsu,  and 
Tan  Tzu-tung  [four  of  the  most  active  members  of  the  reform 
party]  were  to  devise  some  'sound  plan  of  action.' 

385 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

"I  once  more  objected  that  the  document  was  not  an  Im- 
perial Order,  since  it  was  not  written  in  vermilion  ink,  nor  did 
it  mention  the  execution  of  Jung  Lu  and  the  confining  of  the 
Empress  [Grand]  Dowager  in  the  Summer  Palace.  Tan  said 
the  Vermilion  Order  was  in  Lin  Hsu's  hands  and  that  what 
was  produced  was  only  a  copy,  and  added  that  in  truth  an 
Imperial  Order  had  been  issued  three  days  before.  He  as- 
sured me  that  the  phrase  'sound  plan  of  action'  referred  to 
the  disposal  of  Jung  Lu  and  the  imprisonment  of  the  Empress 
[Grand]  Dowager. 

"As  I  insisted  on  the  Vermilion  Order  from  the  Emperor 
and  Tan  could  not  show  one,  there  was  nothing  definite  ar- 
ranged between  us.  On  taking  leave,  Tan  said : 

"  'We  depend  on  you.' 

"I  decided  that  at  my  audience  on  the  2Oth  I  would  sound 
the  Emperor  on  the  subject  by  referring  to  the  reform  move- 
ment. Accordingly,  when  I  was  summoned  for  audience,  I 
spoke  of  the  new  reform  and  its  difficulties,  and  the  late 
Emperor  was  much  affected  by  my  words,  but  made  no  refer- 
ence to  the  'sound  plan  of  action.' 

"The  conservatives  were  also  active.  Huai  Ta-pu,  Li 
Shan,  and  Yang  Chung-yi  [whose  son  married  the  daughter 
of  Lord  Li  Ching-fang]  went  off  to  Tientsin  and  deliberated 
in  secret  with  Jung  Lu,  who  was  well  informed  of  what  was 
going  on  through  them  and  communications  with  the  reaction- 
aries. 

"When  I  retired  from  audience  with  the  Emperor  I  joined 
a  friend  at  the  railway  station  and  proceeded  to  Tientsin.  On 
my  arrival  at  Tientsin  in  the  evening  I  called  on  Jung  Lu, 
who  said  to  me : 

"  'You  have  come  for  my  head.  You  had  better  confess  all, 
because  a  man  [Yang  Chung-yi]  who  was  here  just  now,  be- 
fore you  came,  has  told  me  everything.' 

"  'What  you  have  heard  is  but  the  plot  of  a  few  political 
schemers,'  said  I.  'His  Majesty  the  Emperor  said  nothing  to 
me  about  such  a  plan,  and  he  is  innocent  of  such  a  measure.' 

"At  this  juncture  in  the  conversation  the  late  Admiral  Yeh 
was  announced,  and  later  on  Ta  Yu-yen  arrived.  They  stayed 

386 


THE  PRESIDENT,  THE  NATION,  AND  WORLD 

until  ii  P.M.,  and  seeing  no  chance  of  renewing  the  conver- 
sation I  returned  to  my  lodging.  Next  morning,  September 
21,  Jung  Lu  called  on  me  and  said : 

"  'Lately  friends  from  Peking  have  repeatedly  informed 
me  of  the  reformers'  minutest  movements.  Their  daring  is 
astounding.  We  must  rescue  the  Emperor  from  their  clutches.' 

"When  Jung  Lu  returned  to  his  yamen  he  summoned  Ta 
Yu-yen  for  consultation,  and  sent  for  me  in  the  evening. 
Yang  Chung-yi  was  present,  and  produced  an  edict  sent  by 
wire,  informing  Jung  Lu  that  the  reformers'  plot  had  been 
exposed  in  Peking,  that  the  Emperor  was  in  durance,  and 
that  the  Empress  [Grand]  Dowager  had  resumed  the  Re- 
gency. On  dismissing  me  from  his  presence  Jung  Lu  pointed 
to  the  teacup  and  said :  'You  can  drink — there  is  no  poison 
in  your  tea.' 

"Four  days  afterwards,  September  25,  Jung  Lu  was  called 
to  Peking,  and  September  28  transferred  to  the  Grand  Coun- 
cil and  given  the  rank  and  power  of  Generalissimo." 

This  narrative  shows  that  the.  reformers  of  1898,  the  Chin- 
ese and  foreign  Press,  and  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  enemies  and  op- 
ponents greatly  exaggerated  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  responsibility 
in  the  failure  of  the  reform  movement  of  1898  and  his  im- 
portance in  the  coup  d'etat.  It  shows  much  more.  It  shows 
the  value  as  a  weapon  at  the  end  of  1908,  on  the  eve  of  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai's  fall,  of  the  prevailing  beliefs  respecting  this  part 
of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  record,  in  serving  the  interests  of  his 
opponents.  These  opponents  were,  the  original  reform  move- 
ment of  Kang  Yu-wei,  and  the  outsider.  The  outsider  whose 
interests  are  most  vital  in  China's  affairs,  and  to  whom  every 
advantage  is  vital,  is  Japan.  Upon  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  dismissal 
it  was  instinctively  recognised  by  the  European  and  American 
Ministers,  as  well  as  by  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  own  party,  that  Japan 
was  an  opponent.  Her  nominee  Na  Tung,  whose  interests  she 
backed  against  her  opponent  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  was  immediately 
appointed  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  successor.  He  had  been  on  sev- 
eral missions  to  Japan,  beginning  with  the  expiatory  mission 
of  1901  to  apologise  for  the  murder  of  the  Japanese  Secre- 

387 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

tary  of  Legation  at  Peking  by  Boxers  1900,  since  which  time 
he  was  recognised  without  contradiction  as  a  Japanese  par- 
tisan. 

When  Japan  now  refused  to  join  Great  Britain  and  Amer- 
ica in  representations  to  China  on  the  dangers  involved  in  her 
unconscionable  dismissal  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  she  was  accused 
of  infidelity  to  her  ally  Great  Britain,  and  to  the  principle  of 
a  community  of  interests  of  the  nations  in  China. 

Japan's  defence  must  be  recorded.  She  represented  that 
she  would  have  sided  with  the  majority  of  Ministers,  but  as 
the  majority — she  counted,  of  course,  the  nations  having  no 
power  of  initiative  in  China — were  not  going  to  act,  she  would 
remain  neutral.  The  situation  so  far  as  the  action  of  the  Min- 
isters was  concerned  no  longer  had  any  bearing  on  the  merits 
of  the  question,  when  Japan  announced  her  position.  It  had 
arranged  itself  for  Japan  with  strict  reference  to  the  diplo- 
macy of  Eastern  Asia  that  adjusts  itself  to  the  fait  accompli. 
But  Japan's  position  and  course  in  this  was  diplomatically 
incontrovertible. 

January  15,  1909,  Sir  John  Jordan,  British  Minister,  and 
W.  W.  Rockhill,  American  Minister,  visited  Prince  Ching, 
head  of  the  Chinese  Foreign  Office  and  of  the  Imperial  Clan, 
and  surviving  patron  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  in  accordance  with 
instructions  from  their  respective  Governments  and  expressed 
the  anxiety  of  these  Governments  over  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  dis- 
missal and  China's  policy.  This  act  necessitated  a  formal 
expression  by  China  of  her  policy.  It  formally  placed  her  on 
record  as  committed  to  a  continuation  of  her  traditional  re- 
lation to  the  Powers  without  change  and,  by  establishing  and 
emphasising  in  the  understanding  of  the  Throne  and  the  Dy- 
nasty the  importance  to  China's  welfare  of  the  safety  of  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai,  it  set  before  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  the  par- 
amount question  of  Eastern  Asia :  China  against  Japan,  Japan 
against  China.  ' 

This  is  the  measure  at  this  moment  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  and 
his  importance  in  China's  future.  I  give  these  details  because 
of  the  great  importance  to  men  and  nations  of  a  full  knowl- 
edge of  the  events  that  have  brought  on  the  struggle  of  China 
— the  most  stupendous  struggle  man  has  ever  known. 

388 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII 
PART  OF  THE  PEOPLE 

LI  YUAN-HUNG,  Sun  Vat-sen,- and  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  the 
triumvirate  are  three  men.  To  stop  with  them  would 
be  to  leave  out  China  and  all  that  must  be  the  Republic 
if  it  is  to  exist  hereafter.  What  exists  is  the  people,  and  they 
are  the  whole  answer. 

Famine  had  prepared  the  country  for  rebellion.  Septem- 
ber i,  1911,  the  budget  of  the  Board  of  Finance  showed  a 
decrease  of  over  taels  50,000,000  due  to  this  one  cause.  In 
Hunan  and  Hupeh,  the  two  provinces  where  the  Republic  was 
declared,  three  millions  to  four  millions  of  people  were  suffer- 
ing from  flood  and  famine,  and  over  100,000  persons  had  lost 
their  lives  by  the  time  of  the  outbreak.  In  the  third  of  the 
famine  provinces,  Anhuei,  there  were  estimated  to  be  1,000,000 
sufferers  in  a  single  district  in  the  North,  a  description  of 
whom  will  give  an  idea  of  a  section  of  the  millions  who  are 
charges  of  the  "Flowery  Republic." 

The  principal  facts  are  from  the  observations  of  the  Amer- 
ican Red  Cross  Engineer,  C.  D.  Jameson,  and  his  assistant, 
Rev.  Mr.  Beaman.  At  Hwai-yuan,  seven  out  of  ten  families 
have  no  seed  grain  for  1912,  and  there  are  six  other  similar 
centres  of  famine.  By  the  time  the  Rebellion  is  on,  all  trees 
and  land  have  been  sold,  and  the  last  stage  preceding  starva- 
tion is  indicated  by  the  sale  of  the  roofs  of  houses.  No  pigs 
or  fowls  are  to  be  seen ;  all  is  bare,  with  the  mud  plains  be- 
neath and  the  beautiful  blue  sky  overhead.  Parents  beg  food 
on  behalf  of  sometimes  only  a  single  son,  willing  to  sacrifice 
other  children  in  the  hope  of  saving  the  family  line.  The  story 
becomes  more  sickening  as  the  Red  Cross  agents  go  from 
centre  to  centre.  General  Chang  Hsun's  Imperialist  troops 
bind  to  small  trees  near  the  station  at  Ling-hwai-kuan  200  or 
more  looting  soldiers,  shoot  them  to  death  and  leave  thfem  to 
be  mutilated  with  sword  and  bayonet.  The  Republican  sol- 

389 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

diers  alternately  commandeer  supplies  and  punish  looting,  exe- 
cuting on  the  spot  those  found  with  the  smallest  articles  of 
loot. 

"These  people  fell  between  the  devil  and  the  deep  sea — 
famine  and  robbers,"  says  a  Roman  Catholic  priest.  "The 
strong  became  robbers,  the  weak  went  to  the  wall.  The  streets 
were  filled  with  pools  of  blood  which  the  starving  relatives  of 
the  victims — wives,  mothers,  and  sisters — kissed  or  licked  with 
their  tongues  as  they  knelt  before  the  authorities  pleading  for 
mercy  for  their  kindred."  Four  consecutive  years  of  flood 
and  famine  prepared  the  horrors  of  the  first  winter  of  the 
Republic  here. 

Father  de  Glois  saw  a  mother  and  two  children  dead  from 
starvation  in  the  snow  by  the  roadside.  Again,  a  mother 
and  son,  the  mother  dead,  the  son  some  distance  away  in  the 
last  stages  of  starvation,  but  not  quite  dead.  "I  took  him 
up,"  said  the  priest,  "and  tried  to  place  him  in  my  saddle. 
He  vomited,  and  with  a  few  gasps  died,  before  his  body 
reached  the  saddle.  I  administered  the  last  rites  and  laid  the 
body  beside  the  mother,  and  went  on.  Every  night  scores  of 
helpless  families  lie  at  the  door  of  my  Mission  calling  for 
help." 

Amid  these  scenes,  on  Chinese  New  Year's  Day,  the  abdi- 
cation proclamation  was  posted.  "It  made  the  simple  state- 
ment," said  Mr.  Beaman,  "that  the  Throne  had  been  given 
back  to  the  people  and  that  they  were  to  be  united  under  one 
People's  Government.  Few  took  trouble  to  read  it,  and  it 
seemed  to  make  very  little  impression.  Worship  went  on  in 
the  usual  way,  except  that  the  name  of  the  Emperor  was 
erased  from  the  household  tablet  and  in  its  place  'People's 
Kingdom'  was  inscribed." 

Farther  on  the  country  is  infested  with  robber  bands,  and 
many  families  straggle  southward  in  search  of  food,  after 
being  overtaken  by  starvation  at  home.  Their  path  is  along 
a  roadway  where  those  who  have  preceded  them  have  added 
exhaustion  to  starvation  and  become  food  for  scavenger  dogs. 
One  foody  is  seen  in  a  field,  half  eaten.  Here  and  there  is  a 
new-made  grave  strewn  with  tattered  rags  dug  up  by  the 

390 


PART   OF   THE    PEOPLE 

dogs;  the  stronger  men  pushing  wheelbarrows  bring  the  last 
scraps  of  household  furnishings.  Children  too  small  to  walk 
peep  from  wooden  pails  here  and  there  tied  to  the  wheel- 
barrow frames.  Others  are  falling  behind,  as  they  become 
more  and  more  weak,  perhaps  as  night  comes  on  to  fight  help- 
lessly a  moment  with  the  dogs.  They  look  old  and  pinched 
and  hungry.  There  is  one  old  woman,  "clad  in  tatters,  bent 
and  unsteady,  with  a  stick  across  her  shoulders  holding  a 
small  basket  of  weeds — her  food.  She  has  a  fixed  gaze  in 
her  eyes,  is  shrunken  and  hungry,  with  strength  enough  for 
one  step  at  a  time.  Perhaps  soon  after  nightfall  she  falls  by 
the  wayside  to  die  alone  in  the  cold." 

As  the  road  leads  westward — crossing  the  famine  region 
from  east  to  west — some  of  the  villages  and  hamlets  have  a 
few  stacks  of  straw,  and  occasionally  a  few  animals.  Again 
no  straw,  animals,  or  fowls  are  to  be  seen,  and  many  houses 
are  roofless  and  empty.  People  wander  aimlessly  about  with 
vacant,  staring  eyes,  and  women  and  children  kneel  down  beg- 
ging for  food.  Homes  have  practically  nothing  in  them.  Re- 
ports from  larger  cities  show  the  ragged  and  hungry  filling  the 
streets.  In  the  smaller  district  cities,  many  houses  are  de- 
serted after  the  doors  have  been  sealed  with  blocks  of  mud 
and  plastered  over.  Where  roofs  have  been  sold  and  removed 
the  walls  are  crumbling.  There  are  no  markets  and  no  food- 
stuffs to  purchase.  Children  are  offered  as  gifts  to  passers-by. 
Mud  fortifications  are  thrown  up  about  the  more  important 
villages  with  drawbridges  so  guarded  as  to  be  taken  up  at  a 
moment's  notice  and  the  bridges  removed  altogether.  These 
are  the  wealthier  villages  or  the  strongholds  of  robber  bands. 
Those  who  are  strongest  plunder,  destroying  whole  cities. 
Chang-tang-tao  is  an  example  of  this.  It  contained  about 
i, cxx>  families.  One  afternoon  a  band  of  300  robbers  came 
and  demanded  food.  Having  eaten,  they  began  killing,  loot- 
ing, and  burning.  "When  the  robbers  began,"  said  the  son 
of  one  family,  "they  rushed  into  our  house  and  with  swords 
and  bayonets  slew  my  father,  mother,  brother,  sisters,  and  a 
young  cousin,  looted  the  house  and  set  it  on  fire.  The  front 
entrance  alone  remained."  Nearly  100  innocent  people  were 

391 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

slaughtered,  and  women  of  the  better  families  carried  away 
captive. 

Fifteen  villages  and  hamlets,  burned  and  desolated,  line 
the  roadway  along  the  north  of  this  famine  region.  Some- 
times all  the  surviving  inhabitants  of  a  village  or  hamlet  are 
found  huddled  together  under  one  remaining  roof,  eating  thin 
gruel  mixed  with  dry  weeds.  One  such  company  is  made  up 
of  helpless  women  and  children,  with  a  few  maimed,  aged, 
and  decrepit  men.  "We  can  hold  out  only  a  little  longer," 
they  say. 

The  region  of  the  Tientsin-Pukow  Railway  has  been  swept 
by  two  armies,  the  Imperialists  and  the  Republicans.  What 
they  left,  robbers  inherit.  No  authority  exists  and  no  se- 
curity, and  an  occasional  official  having  to  cross  the  region 
leaves  marks  of  his  passing  by  the  wayside  where  are  bodies 
of  robbers  shot  by  his  militia  guard. 

At  Chi-chia-tien,  a  noted  robber  village,  all  the  black- 
smiths are  busy  making  firearms.  These  native  weapons  are 
worth  one  dollar  and  fifteen  cents — four  shillings  and  sixpence 
— each.  An  armed  rabble  is  the  village  guard  which  meets 
all  visitors  outside  the  town.  It  is  part  of  an  organised  robber 
band  preparing  to  plunder  a  neighbouring  town.  Before  the 
traveller  go  robber  bands,  inaccurately  estimated  by  the  dying 
people  and  vaguely  reported.  From  the  west  comes  a  Roman 
Catholic  priest,  arriving  after  a  week's  wheelbarrow  journey. 
He  could  not  ride  a  horse  or  other  animal,  because  it  would 
have  been  taken  from  him.  He  passed  an  encampment  of 
2,000  robbers  at  the  large  and  important  city  of  Ying-chou-fu. 
His  compound  was  looted  four  times.  A  brother-priest  near 
by  was  twice  looted,  his  eyeglasses  taken  from  his  nose. 

Nan  Hsu  Chou  is  the  borderland  of  the  Imperialist  and 
Revolutionary  armies  and  is  the  Republican  outpost.  In  the 
environs  people  are  digging  roots  and  weeds  in  the  fields  for 
food.  An  occasional  donkey  or  cow  is  seen,  the  two  some- 
times hitched  together  and  drawing  wood  taken  from  the 
houses  to  market.  Everywhere  is  anarchy.  The  bodies  of 
soldiers  killed  at  the  occupation  of  the  City  by  the  Republicans 
remain  unburied.  The  skeletons  are  still  intact,  the  skulls  not 


PART    OF   THE    PEOPLE 

yet  bleached  white,  and  tufts  of  long  hair  strewn  about  by 
the  dogs.  Within  the  year  1911,  200,000  people  have  died  of 
starvation  in  this  region  alone ;  400,000  still  suffer  after  four 
years  of  flood  and  famine. 

All  the  horses  which  the  region  possessed  after  the  raids 
of  the  robbers  are  picketed  at  the  Republican  camp,  gathered 
in  by  the  soldiers  who  have  scoured  the  country.  Outside  are 
the  deserted  villages  of  the  great  monotonous  plain,  like  the 
broken  hamlets  of  Manchuria  during  the  Russo-Japanese  War, 
and  occasionally  robber  towns  where  in  rude  forges  native 
blacksmiths  make  gun-barrels.  They  beat  iron  around  a  core, 
and  removing  the  core  drill  a  touch-hole  at  the  breech  end. 
Between  are  the  wolf-like  dogs,  following  the  robber,  the  sol- 
dier, and  following  all  come  the  European  and  American 
priest,  pastor,  and  the  succouring  Red  Cross.  Red,  raw  skulls 
grin  in  the  fallow  or  gnaw  dirt  among  thin  and  chaff -like 
stubble.  Skeletons  lie  about  with  only  the  arms  and  feet 
gone,  and  the  dogs  hide  behind  a  line  of  graves  away  from 
the  passer-by.  This  is  a  picture  of  China  in  rebellion.  Even 
the  gentry,  China's  immemorial  bulwark,  are  here  turning 
bandit  in  obedience  to  the  first  law  of  nature. 

Amid  all  this,  the  Chinese  officials  temporise  with  the  Red 
Cross  over  famine  relief  expenditures  with  the  view  of  get- 
ting control  of  the  funds  for  themselves.  Who  would  not 
say  that  China's  disease  and  problem  is  that  of  being  Chinese  ? 

The  question  of  who  is  the  Martha  Washington  of  China 
as  a  Republic  will  come  up  as  time  goes  on  and  the  ideals 
of  the  reformers  become  more  fixed.  The  honour  will  lie 
between  Madam  Sun  Yat-sen,  wife  and  mother  of  revolu- 
tionaries and  reformers,  and  Madam  Li  Yuan-hung,  wife  of 
the  man  who  has  been  called  the  Chinese  Washington,  and  a 
lady  known  as  the  Minister  to  the  Wounded  at  Hankow.  It 
is  likely  that  the  greatest  Chinese  heroine  of  the  future  will 
be  the  ministering  angel  who  can  bring  humanity  into  the 
treatment  of  the  starving  in  China,  alleviate  generally  the  suf- 
fering connected  with  Chinese  life,  and  raise  the  value  of  the 
individual  being  through  educating  and  enlightening  the  Chin- 
ese mothers. 

393 


CHAPTER   XXXIX 
LAST  COURT  OF  THE  MANCHUS 

THE  Chinese  are  hungry  for  food,  for  enlightenment,  and 
for  relief  from  themselves,  their  system,  customs,  and 
self-bondage.     But  all  of  these  ills  they  have  laid  at 
the  door  of  the  Manchu,  who,  judging  by  the  Republican  cry, 
is  their  one  grievance.     The  Manchus  did  not  take  care  to 
place  themselves  above  blame.    While  they  conferred  a  mon- 
archical system  of  government  with  a  Constitution  upon  China 
and  promoted  reforms  beyond  the  capacity  of  Chinese  to  re- 
form, the  Dynastic  system  and  the  Court  were  not  altered  in 
any  important  particular. 

A  picture  of  the  Palace  under  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dow- 
ager half  a  year  before  the  outbreak  of  the  revolutionary  Re- 
bellion was  furnished  me  by  one  of  the  reformers  who  was 
sent  into  the  Forbidden  City  bearing  certain  presents  from  a 
foreign  Court  for  the  little  Emperor  Pu  Yi.  The  occasion 
was  that  of  the  birthday  anniversary  of  the  foreign  monarch, 
and  the  reformer  entered  the  Palace  on  the  eve  of  the  birth- 
day anniversary  of  George  Washington.  The  mission  took 
seven  hours  to  perform,  although  the  time  required  to  enter 
the  Palace  was  but  a  few  moments.  The  gift-bearer  had 
arrived  inside  the  eastern  gate  of  the  Palace  by  2  AM.,  the 
usual  hour  for  reception  of  official  visitors.  He  thus  describes 
his  feelings  and  experiences : 

"I  have  been  up  all  night  without  sleep,  and  am  tired  out 
with  the  effects  of  my  visit,  especially  the  strain  of  being  so 
discreet.  You  see,  I  was  selected  to  explain  these  royal  pres- 
ents, which  I  did  not  very  well  understand,  not  having  seen 
them  before.  I  went  in  in  the  night.  It  was  very  dark  and 
of  course  I  could  not  see  much.  I  could  not  wear  my  glasses 

394 


LAST  COURT  OF  THE  MANCHUS 

[it  is  impolite  in  China  to  wear  glasses  in  company],  and  so  I 
could  not  even  read  the  characters  over  the  gateways  between 
the  courts  as  I  went  along.  As  I  knew  not  what  the  inscrip- 
tions were,  I  learned  very  little  about  the  inside  of  the  Palace. 

"I  was  taken  into  a  room  where  the  presents  had  been  laid 
down  and  were  opened.  The  directions  were  written  in  a 
foreign  language,  so  that  I  could  not  read  them,  but  never- 
theless I  was  obliged  to  explain.  Some  of  the  objects  I  had 
never  seen  the  like  of  before.  Among  other  things  there  was 
an  aeroplane.  When  it  came  to  this,  I  said  that  I  would 
demonstrate  what  it  was  but  that  I  was  afraid  something 
might  be  broken  before  it  reached  His  Majesty.  Besides,  it 
was  dangerous  to  try  it  on  account  of  there  being  so  much 
glass  about. 

"I  was  talking  to  the  principal  servants  of  Her  Majesty 
the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager,  and  I  said  that  they  need 
but  give  the  word.  They,  of  course,  said  with  one  voice,  'Oh, 
no,'  because,  of  course,  they  could  not  risk  having  an  acci- 
dent. Regarding  a  battery  of  some  kind ,  which  the  boxes 
contained,  I  said  that  as  it  was  electrical,  and  as  the  Palace 
was  fitted  with  an  electrical  plant,  it  was  only  proper  to  turn 
it  over  to  the  care  of  the  engineers  there,  as  they  would  under- 
stand how  to  operate  it.  One  of  the  eunuchs  spoke  up  quickly 
and  said,  'Why,  of  course ;  we  will  have  the  engineer  brought 
in  at  once,  so  that  you  can  explain  it  to  him.' 

"I  was  embarrassed  and  asked  my  companion  from  the 
Chinese  Foreign  Office  what  I  should  do.  Then  I  observed 
that  the  battery  was  very  nicely  packed  in  its  case  and  that 
some  knowledge  and  care  were  necessary  in  order  to  take  it 
out,  so  I  suggested  that  inasmuch  as  it  was  so  carefully  put 
up  it  might  be  best  before  proceeding  farther  to  let  the  Em- 
peror examine  it.  This  I  recommended  as  apparently  the 
safest  way  to  proceed.  The  eunuch  seemed  taken  with  this 
idea  and  consented  at  once,  so  I  saved  myself  again.  I  was 
astonished  at  my  success  and  how  well  my  answers  worked. 
My  companion  remarked  how  clever  I  was  in  dealing  with  the 
eunuchs. 

"There  were  other  things,  including  a  wagon  about  two 

395 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

feet  long,  with  a  ladder  which  when  extended  was  several  feet 
high.  There  were  many  mechanical  toys,  and  I  think  these 
pleased  the  Palace  attendants  more  than  anything  else.  There 
were  several  musical  toys,  including  a  musical  chair  which 
would  play  a  tune  whenever  sat  upon.  As  I  left  the  place  I 
saw  it  carried  out  in  the  direction  of  other  buildings,  while 
the  remaining  presents  were  left  in  charge  of  servants-in- 
waiting. 

"When  the  exhibition  was  over,  the  ladies  of  the  Court, 
who  all  the  time  had  been  looking  on  by  peeping  in  at  the 
windows,  came  in.  I  had  noticed  them,  but  could  not  look  up 
— that  was  impossible,  according  to  our  ideas.  When  they 
began  to  come  in,  of  course  I  had  to  make  my  escape,  and  I 
did  this  just  in  time  by  slipping  down  a  side  passage. 

"During  the  explanations  messages  were  carried  in  to  Her 
Majesty  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager.  At  the  end  I  had 
to  express  my  thanks  to  Her  Majesty  and  this  message  was 
likewise  taken  in.  Word  came  back  that  Her  Majesty  would 
excuse  me  from  jfhis  formality.  I  then  had  to  go  to  the  head 
eunuch  and  make  my  manners.  I  was  shown  into  his  room, 
and  found  him  sitting  at  a  table  eating.  He  rose  in  a  most 
peculiar  way,  and  according  to  his  own  ideas  must  have  shown 
me  considerable  deference.  So  I  thought.  When  he  was  up, 
he  was  standing  on  his  right  foot,  with  his  left  in  the  chair  in 
which  he  had  been  sitting.  His  arms  were  akimbo  and  he 
looked  boorish  and  overbearing.  In  this  position  he  turned 
at  first  a  haughty  look  upon  me.  It  was  as  much  as  to  say, 
'What  are  you  here  for?'  I  told  him  I  had  come  to  ask  that 
my  thanks  be  given  to  Her  Majesty. 

"  'Won't  you  have  something  to  eat  with  me  ?'  said  he. 

"This  was  the  proper  thing  for  him  to  say. 

"  'I  dare  not,'  I  replied,  this  being  the  polite  address  to  a 
superior  under  such  circumstances. 

"  'Well,  won't  you  be  seated  and  rest  yourself  ?' 

"To  this  I  again  replied : 
"  'I  dare  not.' 

"  'WeU,  then,  please  drink,  at  your  pleasure,  some  tea.' 

"This  being  the  essential  termination  of  my  interview,  I 

396 


LAST    COURT    OF   THE    MANCHUS 

thanked  him,  and  asked  him  to  convey  my  thanks  to  Her 
Majesty. 

"The  head  eunuch  to  whom  I  had  spoken  was  such  a  hand- 
some person  that  if  I  had  been  asked  I  would  have  said  he 
was  a  woman.  His  name  was  Sung.  He  was  strikingly  hand- 
some, in  fact  beautiful.  When  he  spoke  so  cordially  to  me, 
the  other  eunuchs  took  their  tip  from  him  and  treated  me 
accordingly.  They  asked  my  full  name,  my  personal  name, 
and  then  called  me  by  the  latter. 

"But  it  was  quite  different  when  I  first  went  in  and  we 
opened  the  presents.  The  eunuchs  were  lofty  and  overbear- 
ing. They  looked  at  me  as  though  I  was  a  housebreaker, 
and  then  scowled  and  asked  me  what  I  wanted  and  what  I 
was  doing  in  there.  Having  told  them  I  got  on  very  well, 
for  they  saw  that  as  the  messenger  of  a  rich  and  powerful 
country  I  was  a  fat  prospect  for  them  to  'squeeze.'  They  saw 
they  could  get  money  out  of  me,  and  told  me  I  should  get 
the  finest  presents  from  the  Palace. 

"But  let  me  tell  you,"  he  went  on,  "I  have  received  a  pres- 
ent from  the  Emperor;  yes,  I  have  received  a  present  from 
the  Throne,  from  my  Emperor.  When  I  had  finished  show- 
ing our  presents,  one  of  the  high  eunuchs  said  of  me  that  I 
had  done  well  and  should  have  some  of  the  best  presents  from 
them.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  when  the  presents  came,  they 
were  only  fruit — not  good  fruit,  either. 

"I  have  not  told  you  all.  It  was  very  funny,  after  I  told 
the  eunuchs  my  errand.  All  asked  in  one  voice : 

"  'Who  is  the  tribute  from  ?' 

"The  'tribute'  [chin-kung],  they  said,  with  a  clatter  of 
voices.  'What  country  does  the  chin-kung  come  from  ?'  And 
then  came  the  answer  from  several.  I  couldn't  report  this  to 
the  Minister  of  that  proud  foreign  Power.  But  what  do  you 
think  he  would  have  said  had  I  told  him  that  in  the  Palace 
we  were  'tribute-bearers'?  Oh,  I  was  disheartened  by  going 
in  there.  There  is  no  hope  of  changing  the  Palace  and  stop- 
ping the  abuses  and  'squeezes.'  I  am  ashamed  that  they  know 
nothing.  They  do  not  know  that  the  presents  were  not  trib- 
ute. It  cost  me  ten  dollars  [silver  value — an  outrageous  im- 

397 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

position]  to  have  the  presents  which  I  received  carried  to  the 
Palace  outer  gate.  When  I  got  home  I  found  them  to  be 
nothing  more  than  four  baskets  of  fruit.  For  curiosity's  sake 
I  reckoned  the  cost  to  me  and  found  it  to  be  about  twice  the 
market  price  in  the  street.  There  were  about  150  pieces.  The 
baskets  were  not  even  of  different  assorted  fruits,  such  as  a 
proper  present  of  this  kind  must  be,  but  just  what  happened 
to  be  lying  about.  One  was  of  oranges,  one  of  pears,  and 
the  other  two  were  only  of  apples.  This  is  the  method  of 
'squeezing'  by  the  eunuchs.  It  is  necessary  to  pay  everyone 
in  each  court  through  which  one  passes.  It  is  necessary  to 
give  money  to  everyone  visible,  because  they  make  themselves 
noticed. 

"You  know  that  the  Foreign  Office  [Wai-wu-pu]  is  in 
charge  of  all  such  gifts  to  the  Emperor.  It  is  bled  atrociously 
for  these  formalities.  If  the  Foreign  Office  does  not  pay 
properly,  the  things  they  send  in  are  damaged  in  some  way, 
or  arrive  late,  or  something  else  to  cause  inconvenience  hap- 
pens to  them  by  design,  and  the  Throne  then  punishes  the 
Foreign  Office.  That  is  the  reason  the  Foreign  Office  sent 
one  of  its  representatives  with  me,  so  that  the  blame  would 
not  be  put  upon  it.  And  this  made  it  necessary  for  me  to  pay 
the  costs.  Everybody  complains,  and  the  Foreign  Office  more 
than  anyone.  The  eunuchs  cannot  all  read1.  I  have  been  told 
that  the  Emperor's  head  eunuch  Chang  cannot  read." 

The  personnel  of  the  Palace  at  this  time,  besides  the  child 
Emperor  Pu  Yi,  may  be  enumerated  thus : 

The  Emperor  Kuang  Hsu  and  his  predecessor  Tung  Chih 
were  heirless.  Kuang  Hsu  had  but  two  consorts  besides  his 
wife,  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager.  One  of  these  con- 
sorts, Chen,  committed  suicide  the  day  the  Court  fled  from 
Peking  in  1900.  The  surviving  one  was  Chin.  Tung  Chih 
left  consorts  Yu,  Ch'in,  and  Hsun,  of  which  the  first  is  the 
most  alert.  A  consort  of  the  Emperor  Hsien  Feng,  known 
as  Chi,  was  reported  to  me  as  a  still  active  member  of  the 
Imperial  Family  at  the  beginning  of  1910.  The  Empress 
[Grand]  Dowager  had  an  adopted  daughter,  and  the  Court  per- 

398 


LAST    COURT    OF   THE    MANCHUS 

sonnel  was  then  followed  by  the  eunuchs  Sung  and  Chang 
(An  Teh's,  or  guardians),  belonging  to  the  Lung  Yu  Em- 
press Dowager,  and  the  eunuchs  Chang,  Sun,  and  Lin,  all 
belonging  to  the  consort  Yu.  The  inferior  eunuchs  were  esti- 
mated to  number  between  2,000  and  4,000,  the  census  never 
having  been  published.  Needless  to  say,  the  Lung  Yu  Em- 
press Dowager  was  the  important  member  of  the  Court.  The 
Chinese  attributed  to  her  the  sincere  desire  to  reform  Palace 
abuses.  Her  predecessor's  chief  eunuch,  Li  Lien-ying — the 
most  notorious  corruptionist  in  the  Palace — retired  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  new  reign  and  had  two  successors.  Sung  (An 
Teh),  the  first,  was  degraded  and  was  succeeded  by  Chang 
(An  Teh). 

All  these  and  no  more  were  permitted  to  reside  in  the 
Forbidden  City,  and  from  these  no  more  than  the  Throne 
selected  might  accompany  the  Court  to  reside  in  the  Western 
Park  adjoining  the  Forbidden  City,  the  Summer  Palace  in 
the  Western  Hills,  the  Southern  Hunting  Park  outside  the 
South  Wall  of  Peking,  and  to  the  Eastern  Tombs  and  West- 
ern Tombs,  to  which  the  last  Court  journeyed.  There  was 
an  interesting  exception,  1908,  when  Prince  Chun,  father  of 
the  Emperor  Pu  Yi,  had  a  palace  in  the  Imperial  premises 
set  aside  for  his  use  where  he  might  spend  the  night,  but  he 
was  ousted  soon  after. 

The  Palace  attendants  managing  all  Court  affairs  and  the 
relation  of  the  government  of  the  Empire  with  the  Imperial 
Family  and  the  Throne,  are,  1910,  shown  to  have  remained 
unenlightened  since  the  first  embassies  to  Peking,  when  the 
Ministers  of  foreign  Powers  were  asked  to  kotow  before  the 
Emperor  of  China,  and  the  procession  of  boats  bearing  their 
belongings  up  the  Pei-ho  were  labelled  with  flags  marked 
"Tribute  Bearers."  And  in  1911,  when  rebellion  came,  the 
Court  and  Palace  and  the  laws  of  the  Imperial  household, 
Imperial  Clan,  and  internal  government  of  the  Manchus  were 
not  essentially  different  from  what  they  had  been  for  100 
years  and  more.  There  were  no  modern  schools  within  the 
Forbidden  City,  no  enlightenment  was  provided  for  the  Palace 
servants  and  Palace  officials,  no  audit  system  was  in  existence, 

399 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

the  child  Emperor  Pu  Yi  was  entrusted  solely  to  the  care  of 
Palace  women  and  eunuchs,  the  latter  pronounced  by  enlight- 
ened men  as  being  among  the  most  degraded  menials  and 
hangers-on  in  the  world. 

It  was  one  of  the  plans  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  to  avert  such  a 
fate  for  the  child  Emperor  Pu  Yi  as  that  of  being  brought  up 
under  petticoat  rule  by  degraded  eunuchs,  and  to  sweep  away 
the  abuses  of  "squeeze"  of  which  the  Foreign  Office  com- 
plained, and  which  it  said  cost  high  officials  such  as  viceroys 
taels  30,000  to  50,000  [in  gold  dollar  value  approximately  two- 
thirds  this  amount]  at  each  audience. 

One  of  the  ways  devised  by  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  for  accom- 
plishing these  objects  shows  what  was  the  magnitude  of  the 
task  he  had  set  for  himself.  He  thought  it  of  such  magni- 
tude as  to  require  the  assistance  of  the  foreign  Powers,  and 
he  therefore  devised  a  plan  by  which  the  foreign  Powers 
should  replace  their  Ministers  at  Peking  with  Ambassadors. 
These,  by  having  the  right  to  demand  audience  of  the  Em- 
peror, could  overrule  Palace  practices  and  abuses. 

The  historian  will  find  on  examination  of  the  reform  pro- 
gramme of  the  Empress  [Grand]  Dowager  that  while  ample 
provisions  were  made  for  the  evolution  of  the  Chinese  them- 
selves, social  and  governmental,  the  Manchus  in  their  own 
internal  affairs  made  no  important  changes.  January  31,  1910, 
the  Manchus  nominally  abolished  the  ancient  institution  of 
slavery  among  the  Chinese.  Their  slaves  were  first  to  be  set 
free  without  exception.  But  the  slaves  of  the  Manchus  [and 
Mongols,  a  yet  more  primitive  people]  were  only  changed  in 
status.  The  constitutional  plan  of  the  Manchus  had  not  gone 
so  far  that  any  change  in  the  Imperial  house  law  reforming 
Court  practices  and  Imperial  Family  government  had  been 
adopted.  In  fact,  the  only  visible  changes  in  Imperial  customs 
was  a  temporary  effort  at  social  intercourse  with  foreign  ladies 
during  the  last  few  years  in  the  life  of  the  Empress  [Grand] 
Dowager,  and  a  few  banquets  to  foreign  officials  given  by  the 
Prince  Regent. 

In  some  respects  the  Manchu  Court  had  at  the  same  time 
deteriorated.  Previous  rulers  had  rid  the  court  of  the  numer- 

400 


LAST    COURT    OF   THE    MANCHUS 

ous  actors  and  mountebanks  which  in  the  Chinese  system  are 
classed  together  and  reckoned  with  the  lowest  class  of  menials. 
They  had  flourished  in  the  previous  Dynasty  [the  Chinese 
Ming],  and  they  appeared  in  the  Forbidden  City  in  the  reign 
of  Chia  Ch'ing,  which  ended  1820.  There  is  no  other  men- 
tion of  them  in  connection  with  the  Palace  during  the  Ching 
Dynasty,  but  they  flourished  under  the  late  Empress  Grand 
Dowager. 

It  was  not  until  the  outbreak  in  Szechuan  became  un- 
controllable that  the  subject  of  the  Imperial  house  law  and 
the  internal  government  of  the  Manchus  was  taken  up.  And 
it  was  significant  of  their  self-conscious  guilt  and  knowledge 
of  the  great  weakness  of  their  position  that  the  Imperial  Clan 
took  action.  An  edict  was  issued  by  the  Prince  Regent,  "in 
obedience,"  it  said,  "to  a  desire  verbally  expressed  to  him 
by  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager,"  to  decrease  the  total 
Palace  expenses  taels  20,000  per  year  and  make  other  re- 
forms. Prince  Pu  Lun  of  the  Constitutional  Bureau  and 
Duke  Tsai  Tse,  Minister  of  Finance,  in  conjunction  with  the 
High  Chamberlain,  and  the  Elders  of  the  Four  Clans,  were 
appointed  to  devise  new  rules  for  assigning  duties  to  officials 
of  the  Board  of  the  Imperial  Household  and  to  those  of  the 
Palace. 

Prince  Pu  Lun  and  Duke  Tsai  Tse  were  ordered  to  adopt 
a  course  of  rigid  economy  in  expenditures  of  the  Imperial 
Household  and  of  the  Board  of  Clansmen,  acting  in  concert 
with  the  Presidents  of  these  two  departments.  The  latter 
officers  gave  out  that  as  an  initial  step  toward  retrenchment 
it  was  decided  to  dismiss  two-fifths  of  their  staffs.  Upon  ex- 
amination it  was  found  that  the  budget  for  the  Imperial 
Household,  instead  of  a  decrease,  provided  for  an  increase  of 
taels  380,000,  making  the  total  estimate  taels  8,385,057. 

It  was  interesting  to  note  the  progress  of  this  belated  effort 
at  self-regeneration  coincident  with  the  progress  of  events  in 
the  setting  up  of  the  Republic.  The  last  heard  of  it  was  in 
the  beginning  of  October,  when  Prince  Pu  Lun  memorialised 
the  Throne  that  he  dared  not  adjust  the  wide  difference  be- 
tween the  expenditures  of  the  Imperial  Household  and  the 

401 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

revenue  available  for  it,  since  it  affected  the  economy  of  Their 
Majesties  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  and  Emperor. 
Thereupon  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  issued  a  rescript 
to  the  effect  that  the  matter  must  be  decided  by  herself. 

This  action  of  the  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  respecting 
the  affairs  of  the  Palace,  which  have  always  been  of  a  nature 
personal  to  it,  and  therefore  sacred  in  the  minds  of  Chinese 
officialdom,  threw  them  back  to  their  original  status,  wherein 
the  Palace  was  politely  ignored  as  nobody's  business. 

The  habitation  of  the  Court  was  a  sovereignty  in  itself; 
the  most  striking  thing  about  it,  its  being  called  the  "Forbid- 
den City,"  was  a  correct  characterisation.  Its  affairs  were 
still  a  monopoly  of  the  eunuchs,  notwithstanding  these  crea- 
tures were  known  to  be  an  abuse  as  well  as  a  danger  to  the 
Empire.  It  was  a  never-to-be-forgotten  example  connected 
with  the  fall  of  the  Mings  that  the  corruption  of  the  Palace 
brought  about  the  situation  which  gave  China  to  the  Manchus. 
But  the  Imperial  Family  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  eunuchs, 
through  whom  all  transactions  with  the  outside  world  always 
had  been  conducted. 

Officials  could  never  obtain  access  to  the  Throne  except 
through  them ;  all  communications  passed  through  their  hands ; 
they  were  the  depositary  of  the  Throne's  information  re- 
specting the  entire  mandarinate;  their  recommendations  car- 
ried weight  with  the  Throne  and  were  obtainable  by  bribery ; 
they  controlled  the  expenses  of  the  Palace  and  made  up  the 
budget ;  no  business  could  be  transacted  with  the  Court  with- 
out greasing  their  palms.  The  stories  of  the  lives  of  the 
eunuchs  is  a  sealed  chapter  to  the  world  at  large.  The  only 
instance  I  can  recall  in  the  modern  history  of  the  Forbidden 
City  wherein  they  are  not  execrated  by  the  Chinese  is  that 
of  a  faithful  eunuch  of  the  suicide  Emperor  Hsien  Feng,  who 
voluntarily  died  with  his  Imperial  master — a  Chinese  custom 
adopted  by  the  Japanese. 

This,  together  with  the  mixed  element  of  dignitaries  from 
without  the  Palace,  is  the  physical  aspect  of  the  Court's  make- 
up, and  its  domestic  life.  Its  official  functions  were  occupied 
with  Dynastic  or  Court  politics,  which  consisted  of  at  least 

402 


LAST    COURT    OF    THE    MANCHUS 

three  interesting  propositions  in  the  Dynasty's  internal  diplo- 
macy. The  first  was  the  maintenance  of  balance  between  the 
Manchu  Clan  party  of  the  Yellow  Girdles,  who  traced  their 
descent  from  the  founder  of  the  Dynasty,  Hsien  Tzu,  and 
called  themselves  the  Aisin  Gioros,  and  the  party  of  the  Red 
Girdles — Yehonala  Clan — who  are  collateral  relations  of  the 
Imperial  house.  The  Throne  in  the  period  of  China's  Revo- 
lution has  been  in  the  possession  of  the  latter. 

The  second  proposition  was  the  maintenance  of  balance 
between  the  great  political  parties  (existing  since  1860),  that 
of  Tseng  Kuo-fan  of  Hunan,  and  that  of  Li  Hung-chang  and 
his  brother,  Li  Han-chang  of  Anhuei.  The  third  was  the 
maintenance  of  the  official  balance  between  China  and  the 
Manchus.  The  latter  was  the  easiest,  since  the  Manchus  had 
no  party  to  serve  and  distributed  themselves  on  the  sides  of 
both,  using  the  Chinese  parties  as  a  balance  to  support  the 
Dynasty  in  power. 

All  this  was  no  mean  task,  and  it  was  complicated  by  the 
inclinations  and  proclivities  of  foreign  nations,  as  their  in- 
terests dictated,  to  exalt  one  official  and  disparage  others,  as, 
for  example,  the  support  of  Na  Tung  by  the  Japanese  against 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  or  Great  Britain,  United  States,  and  others 
supporting  Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  There  was  a  wide  crevice  be- 
tween these  opposing  forces  for  the  Dynasty  to  fall  into  and 
find  destruction,  which  it  did  in  the  revolutionary  Rebellion, 
when  the  Canton  party  arose  and  was  joined  by  the  reformers. 

In  addition  to  all  this  there  was  the  "petticoat  rule"  within 
the  Court,  divided  at  the  last  between  the  Lung  Yu  Empress 
Dowager  and  Princess  Ch'un,  the  wife  of  the  Prince  Regent. 
The  dismissal  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  from  the  Government  when 
the  last  Court  came  into  power,  commencing  the  downward 
path  of  the  Dynasty,  was  an  affair  of  the  men  of  the  Court. 
The  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager  was  not  a  sympathetic  mate 
for  the  late  Emperor  and  did  not  side  with  him  against  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai  at  the  time  of  the  coup  d'etai  of  1898.  On  the  con- 
trary, she  sided  with  her  aunt,  the  Empress  [Grand]  Dowager. 
Princess  Ch'un  was  the  daughter  of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  patron, 
Jung  Lu,  and  had  no  cause  of  her  own  for  intriguing  against 

403 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  But  she  set  up  a  rivalry  with  the  Lung  Yu 
Empress  Dowager,  who  was  the  Imperial  mother  of  her  own 
son.  In  this  she  was  joined  by  her  husband's  mother,  and  it 
has  been  said  in  derision  that  these  two  were  the  Regency. 
They  set  out  to  monopolise  the  cream  of  the  metropolitan 
offices  in  Peking.  There  were  three  princes  in  the  family,  the 
Prince  Regent,  Prince  Hsun,  and  Prince  T'ao,  all  poor  and 
in  need  of  money  to  rehabilitate  their  estates  and  family  repu- 
tation. The  Navy  Bureau  was  given  to  Prince  Hsun,  the 
Army  Bureau  to  Prince  T'ao  (along  with  a  senior  Prince, 
Yu  Lang),  and  the  Prince  Regent  himself  assumed  the  posi- 
tion of  Generalissimo  or  Commander-in-Chief.  After  the  dis- 
missal of  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  this  was  the  next  and  greatest  step 
in  the  Dynasty's  descent. 

Outside  of  the  Palace  and  the  Imperial  Family,  forming 
the  natural  bulwark  of  the  Throne,  was  the  Imperial  Clan, 
consisting  of  the  eight  iron-capped,  or  helmeted,  princely  fami- 
lies, and  other  nobility,  headed  by  Prince  Ching.  They  in- 
cluded the  princes  just  mentioned,  as  well  as  Prince  Kung 
and  Prince  Pu  Lun  (who  were  both  candidates  for  the  throne 
when  the  Emperor  Kuang  Hsu  died),  Prince  Tuan  of  Boxer 
notoriety,  and  many  others.  Among  them  no  voice  was  raised 
and  no  hand  lifted  to  rescue  or  battle  for  the  Throne  and 
Dynasty.  All  responsibility  rested  upon  Prince  Ching,  an  able 
Minister  but  a  very  old  man.  In  all  the  Imperial  Clan  he 
could  discover  no  leader,  and  confessed  that  the  only  suc- 
cessor for  himself  which  he  might  point  out  to  guide  the 
Dynasty  was  the  Chinese,  Yuan  Shih-k'ai.  The  Manchu  Dy- 
nasty seemed  then  to  need  nothing  more  than  the  ceremony 
performed  by  Sun  Yat-sen  at  Hung  Wu's  tomb  to  dispose 
of  it  forever. 

Not  a  single  member  of  the  nobility  possessed  the  least 
foreign  training  or  modern  education.  The  Throne  was  a 
polluted  fountain-head,  and  while  giving  more  to  the  Chinese 
of  reform  than  it  gave  to  itself  it  could  not  govern. 

Except  for  the  assault  of  the  mob  February  29,  1912,  upon 
the  mansion  of  Duke  Kuei  Hsiang,  brother  of  the  late  Em- 
press Grand  Dowager,  the  awakened  Chinese  gave  no  atten- 

404 


LAST    COURT    OF   THE    MANCHUS 

tion  to  the  Imperial  Clan  and  Court.  Those  Clansmen  outside 
the  Palace  made  personal  dispositions  of  their  affairs  without 
reference  to  united  defence,  relying  only  upon  the  protection 
of  foreigners. 

While  they  were  dispersing  to  foreign  colonies  and  settle- 
ments the  Throne  in  its  solicitous  care  for  a  few  loyal  soldiers 
who  had  regained  the  military  spirit  of  the  past  and  died  at 
their  posts  rather  than  surrender  them  to  the  mob,  was  re- 
warding their  spirits  with  posthumous  honours.  Then  those 
within  the  Palace,  remained  quiet,  and  the  Manchus  were  thus 
engulfed  in  the  great  rise  to  consciousness  of  the  Chinese  race 
— only  the  second  rise  in  a  thousand  years. 

There  were  many  able  men  deserving  of  the  rank  to  be 
called  statesmen  in  China  during  the  period  of  the  influence 
of  the  late  Empress  Grand  Dowager  in  the  Palace,  but  in 
the  last  reign  none  who  deserved  to  be  remembered.  If  they 
had  but  cleaned  out  the  Palace  and  educated  some  of  their 
princes,  thus  sweeping  their  own  doorstep,  they  would  at  least 
have  placed  themselves  above  blame.  But  they  did  nothing. 
The  Court  occupied  itself  with  Palace  intrigue,  formed  no 
connection  with  the  world,  and  its  life  seemed  to  show  that 
the  Manchu  Dynasty  was  above  all  aid  and  the  Manchus  the 
only  human  beings  who  did  not  need  friends. 

What  the  Dynasty  lacked  to  meet  the  fate  confronting 
it  is  shown  by  contrast  with  Japan,  which  has  solved  a  simi- 
lar problem.  The  Japanese  say  that  China  as  she  confronted 
the  Revolution  lacked  all  the  essential  elements  that  existed 
in  Japan  in  the  same  emergency.  Her  Throne  was  not  a 
rallying-point  upon  which  was  centred  reverent  affection,  and 
there  was  no  large  party  of  progressive  leaders  who,  to  heredi- 
tary prestige,  added  high  intellect,  profound  foresight,  and 
invincible  courage.  And  it  did  not  have  behind  it  a  nation 
swayed  by  patriotic  sentiment,  and  not  by  selfish  individual- 
ism. To  this  indictment  has  been  added  another,  which  while 
it  reflects  upon  the  Chinese  seems  to  be  the  last  syllable  of 
damnation  for  the  Manchus.  The  Manchu  Dynasty  had  fur- 
nished China  with  perhaps,  from  all  standpoints,  her  greatest 
emperors.  Under  it  China  had  reached  her  greatest  pros- 

405 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

perity,  prestige,  wealth,  and  dimensions.  "Multitudes  of 
Chinese,"  observed  the  Japanese,  "must  have  received  from 
them  benefits  deserving  eternal  gratitude.  Yet  among  all  these 
beneficiaries  not  one  was  found  to  lay  down  his  life  for  his 
Sovereign  at  the  supreme  moment." 

There  was  not  a  prince  of  the  blood  or  blood-relative  of 
any  kind,  there  was  no  Minister  of  State,  there  was  no  Censor, 
to  sacrifice  his  life  in  accordance  with  immemorial  custom 
born  into  them ;  there  was  not  even  the  lowliest  eunuch  to  sig- 
nalise, by  offering  his  own  life,  the  drawing  of  the  curtain 
over  the  Manchus,  such  an  act  as  accompanied  the  lowering 
of  night  upon  the  Mings. 


CHAPTER    XL 
REPUBLICAN  STATE  PAPERS 

THE  revolutionary  Rebellion  was  one  without  marked 
warfare.  It  was  a  campaign  of  peace  propaganda, 
Press  enlightenment  and  anathema,  aided  by  con- 
spiracy. It  succeeded  on  principles  of  conservation  rather 
than  destruction,  while  the  nation,  as  was  observed  by  the 
Japanese,  showed  unwonted  moderation  and  restraint — some 
might  say  indifference — when  the  object  of  the  revolt  was 
achieved.  Unregarded  by,  and  unknown  to  the  unlettered 
hordes,  the  Manchu  Dynasty  passed,  execrated  by  the  revo- 
lutionary reformers  and  by  specific  indictments  of  the  Repub- 
lican leaders  and  Government  in  their  State  papers.  Among 
all  the  phenomena  of  China's  revolutionary  Rebellion  nothing 
struck  me  more  forcibly  than  the  revolutionary  documents. 
Chinese  "Independence"  began  September,  1911,  with 
Pu  Tien-chun,  in  the  province  of  Szechuan.  "The  Chinese 
Republic  and  Presidency"  began  October,  1911,  with  Li  Yuan- 
hung,  at  Wuchang.  Provincial  "Federation"  began  Novem- 
ber, 1911,  with  Wu  Ting-fang,  at  Shanghai,  and  "The  Pro- 
visional Republican  Government"  began  December,  1911,  with 
Sun  Yat-sen,  in  Nanking,  January,  1912,  opened  a  first-class 
Revolution  in  the  Chinese  Empire. 

The  declarations  in  Szechuan  were  simple  conservative 
declarations,  respecting  only  the  nationalisation  of  railways. 
Popular  support  of  these  declarations  embraced  worship  of 
the  spirit  of  the  late  Emperor  Kuang  Hsu.  Those  from 
Wuchang,  in  which  Li  Yuan-hung  said,  "I,  the  General  of 
the  Hupeh  Army,  am  to  overthrow  the  Manchus  and  elevate 
the  Hans,"  first  defined  the  lines  of  the  revolutionary  Re- 
bellion. At  Peking  the  "Nineteen  Articles,"  promulgated  No- 
vember 3,  1911,  by  the  National  Assembly  and  sanctioned  by 
the  Throne,  intended  to  define  and  fix  the  form  of  govern- 

407 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

ment.  They  are  the  best  part  of  the  revolutionary  papers, 
and  though  monarchical,  were  made  in  the  interests  of  those 
who  declared  Republican  independence.  They  were  based 
upon  the  wisdom  which  the  Constitution-makers  of  Peking 
had  acquired  during  seven  years  of  labour  upon  the  consti- 
tutional government,  devised  and  promulgated  in  1907  by  the 
Empress  [Grand]  Dowager.  They  were  a  revolutionary  ad- 
vance over  that  constitutional  scheme  which  was  modelled 
after  the  Constitution  of  Japan,  and  was  itself  thought  by 
conservative  foreign  friends  of  China  to  be-  an  acceptable  one. 

The  "Nineteen  Articles"  were  a  drastic  curb  to  the  powers 
of  the  Manchu  Throne.  They  were  entirely  directed  at  the 
Manchu  sceptre.  They  were  in  fact  a  Constitution  of  parlia- 
mentary rule  and  placed  no  definite  restrictions  upon  Parlia- 
ment itself  at  all.  They  served  to  unseat  the  Dynasty  from 
the  constitutional  refuge  which  since  1907  it  had  been  pro- 
viding for  itself.  Nearly  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  late  Chi- 
nese Empire,  if  reformers  at  all,  are  conservative  reformers. 
Some  idea  of  where  their  representatives,  the  conservative 
Revolutionists  at  Peking,  stood  with  respect  to  constitution- 
alism, may  be  seen  from  a  comparison  of  the  "Nineteen  Ar- 
ticles" with  the  Japanese  Constitution. 

The  first  four  articles  conform  to  those  of  the  Japanese 
Constitution. 

In  another — the  loth  Article — the  Emperor  of  China  was 
granted  the  direction,  but  not  the  supreme  command,  of  the 
army  and  navy,  which  the  Japanese  Emperor  enjoys. 
Whereas  in  Japan  the  Emperor  makes  treaties,  the  Parlia- 
ment in  China  was  to  assume  this  power;  whereas  in  Japan 
the  Government  or  Ministers  of  the  Emperor,  in  consulta- 
tion with  the  Emperor,  framed  the  Imperial  house  laws,  the 
National  Assembly  intended  that  the  Parliament  should  make 
these  laws. 

Article  14  was  an  emergency  measure  to  cover  the  financial 
affairs  of  China  that  were  the  stated  cause  of  the  outbreak  of 
revolutionary  Rebellion.  It  placed  control  of  the  budget,  ante- 
dated one  year,  with  Parliament,  and  prevented  the  Govern- 
ment taking  extraordinary  financial  measures.  This  was  for 

408 


REPUBLICAN    STATE    PAPERS 

the  purpose  of  blocking  foreign  loans  then  pending.  To  me 
these  "Nineteen  Articles"  appear  to  exhibit  the  calmest  and 
best  thought  of  which  the  Revolution  showed  itself  capable. 
They  show  a  knowledge  of  the  American  Constitution,  and 
their  clearness  and  sanity  had  the  effect  for  the  time,  in  the 
outside  world,  of  ennobling  the  National  Assembly  that  en- 
dorsed and  passed  them. 

The  "Nineteen  Articles"  appeared  in  advance  of  the  curi- 
ous documents  which  friendly  nations  were  asked  to  receive 
as  the  voice  of  the  new  Chinese  people,  addressed  to  the  world 
from  Shanghai.  In  the  latter  the  Sargossa  Sea  of  mixed 
Chinese  and  alien  thought  and  revolutionary  banality  engulfed 
the  schooled,  honest,  and  thoughtful  patriots.  One  of  these 
emanations  was  that  in  which  George  Washington,  Thomas 
Jefferson,  and  Wu  Ting- fang  were  rolled  into  one,  Novem- 
ber 7,  1911.  It  might  be  called  the  first  official  appeal  to  the 
world  put  out  from  China  by  the  Republicans,  and  reads : 

"The  Chinese  nation,  born  anew,  in  the  travail  of  revo- 
lution, extends  friendly  greetings  and  felicitations  to  the 
world. 

"As  the  Republic  of  China  it  now  asks  that  recognition 
by  the  civilised  Powers  which  will  enable  it,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  their  kindly  offices,  to  erect  upon  the  foundations  of 
honest  government  and  friendly  trade  and  intercourse  with 
all  peoples,  a  peaceful  and  happy  future. 

"The  Chinese  people  are  not  untried  in  self-government. 
For  countless  ages  they  ruled  themselves :  they  developed 
observance  of  law  to  a  degree  not  known  among  other  races ; 
they  developed  arts  and  industries  and  agriculture,  and  knew 
a  peace  and  contentment  surpassingly  sweet. 

"Down  upon  them  swept  the  savage  hordes  of  an  alien 
warlike  race.  The  Chinese  people  were  conquered  and  en- 
slaved. For  270  years  the  bondage  existed.  Then  the  Chin- 
ese people  rose  and  struck  a  blow  for  freedom.  Out  of  the 
chaos  and  dust  of  a  falling  Throne  emerges  a  free  and  en- 
lightened people — a  great  natural  democracy  of  400,000,000 
human  beings. 

409 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

"They  have  chosen  to  set  up  a  Republic,  and  their  choice 
we  believe  is  a  wise  one.  There  is  no  class  nobility  among 
the  Chinese,  and  they  have  no  recognised  royal  family  to  set 
up  in  place  of  the  Manchu  royal  house.  This  is  a  great 
democracy.  The  officials  spring  from  the  people  and  to  the 
people  they  return.  There  are  no  princes,  lords,  dukes,  among 
the  Chinese.  With  the  Manchu  Throne  removed  there  is  left 
a  made-to-order  Republic.  Already  we  have  provincial  as- 
semblies and  our  National  Assembly.  Already  we  have  a  Re- 
public with  a  full  set  of  competent  officials. 

"Within  a  very  few  days  our  constitutional  convention 
will  meet :  arrangements  for  it  were  made  long  ago.  At  this 
convention  there  will  be  fully  authorised  delegates  from  every 
province  in  China.  A  Constitution  of  the  most  enlightened 
character  will  be  adopted,  and  new  officers  of  the  Provisional 
Government  elected.  Following  this  will  come,  under  the 
provisions  of  the  Constitution,  the  provincial  and  national 
elections. 

"It  is  imperative  that  our  Government  be  recognised 
at  this  time,  in  order  that  business  may  not  be  subjected 
to  prolonged  stagnation.  There  is  peace  everywhere 
save  at  Hankow,  but  business  cannot  proceed  until  the  new 
Republic  shall  be  welcomed  among  the  nations  of  the 
world. 

"We  ask  recognition  in  order  that  we  may  enter  upon 
our  new  life  and  our  new  relationships  with  the  Great 
Powers. 

"We  ask  recognition  of  the  Republic  because  the  Republic 
is  a  fact. 

"Fourteen  of  the  eighteen  provinces  have  declared  their 
independence  of  the  Manchu  Government,  promulgated  their 
allegiance  to  the  Republic.  The  remaining  provinces  will,  it 
is  expected,  soon  take  the  same  course. 

"The  Manchu  Dynasty  finds  its  power  fallen  away  and 
its  glitter  of  yesterday  become  a  puppet  show.  Before  going 
it  has  stripped  itself  of  authority  by  consenting  to  the  terms 
of  the  proposed  Constitution  which  already  have  been  made 
public. 


REPUBLICAN    STATE    PAPERS 

"The  most  glorious  page  in  Chinese  history  has  been  writ- 
ten with  a  bloodless  pen. 

"Wu  TING-FANG, 
"Director  of  Foreign  Affairs." 

This  document  has  been  attributed  to  an  American  news- 
paper man.  It  was  telegraphed  to  an  American  editor,  who 
was  reported  to  have  replied  that  he  was  rushing  off  to  the 
President  of  the  United  States  with  it  at  once. 

December  5,  1911,  the  Republic  at  Wuchang  adopted  in- 
teresting "Articles  of  Confederation,"  but  they  are  without 
originality  or  striking  revolutionary  character.  Following  the 
inauguration  of  Sun  Yat-sen  as  Provisional  President,  several 
historical  documents  appeared,  none  of  them  more  memorable 
than  the  appeal  to  the  Imperialist  military  commanders,  which 
was  followed  by  the  disaffection  of  the  46  officers  who  turned 
the  Imperialist  Army  over  to  the  Republic.  But  the  most 
interesting  to  the  world  at  large  was  the  proclamation  to  the 
friendly  Powers,  promulgated  January  9,  1912,  at  Nanking, 
and  signed  by  President  Sun  Yat-sen  and  his  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  Wang  Ch'ung-huei. 

In  twenty-four  paragraphs  the  "Republic  of  China"  charges 
the  Manchus  with  thirty-four  crimes  and  abuses  against  the 
Chinese  race  and  Empire,  among  them :  the  usurpation  of 
the  Throne ;  the  suppression  of  individual  qualities  and  na- 
tional aspirations  of  the  people ;  misrule ;  oppression  beyond 
endurance ;  slavery  and  bondage ;  unequivocal  seclusion  and 
unyielding  tyranny ;  ignorance  and  selfishness ;  exclusion  of 
the  outer  world;  plunging  the  Chinese  into  a  state  of  be- 
nighted mentality ;  arresting  the  intellectual,  moral,  and  ma- 
terial development  of  China,  thus  committing  a  crime  against 
humanity  and  civilised  nations;  desire  for  perpetual  subjec- 
tion of  the  Chinese ;  a  vicious  craving  for  aggrandisement  and 
wealth ;  governing  to  the  lasting  injury  and  detriment  of  the 
Chinese;  creating  privileges  and  monopolies  and  erecting 
about  themselves  barriers  of  exclusion ;  levying  irregular  and 
unwholesome  taxes  without  consent  of  the  people ;  restrictions 
of  foreign  trade  to  Treaty  ports ;  placing  likin  embargoes 

411 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

upon  merchandise  in  transit;  obstruction  of  internal  com- 
merce ;  retarding  the  creation  of  industrial  enterprises ;  render- 
ing impossible  the  development  of  natural  resources ;  wilfully 
neglecting  to  safeguard  vested  interests ;  denying  a  regular 
system  of  impartial  administration  of  justice;  inflicting  un- 
usual and  cruel  punishments ;  and  nine  other  charges. 

These  crimes  are  the  mangle  upon  which  the  people  of 
China  are  represented  to  be  stretched,  mauled,  and  torn  by 
the  Manchus.  It  is  the  most  complete  expression  of  the 
"grievances"  that  are  the  defence  of  the  revolutionary  re- 
formers. What  strikes  me  so  forcibly  about  these  "griev- 
ances" is  that  they  constitute  a  catalogue  of  Chinese  customs, 
crimes  and  abuses  of  immemorial  antiquity,  and  which  have 
engulfed  not  only  Chinese  aspirations  and  development  but 
Manchu  as  well.  In  the  first  place,  they  are  at  variance  with 
the  utterances  and  position  of  the  gentry,  scholars,  and  stu- 
dent reformers  of  Szechuan,  Hunan,  Hupeh,  and  even  of 
Kiangsu  and  Chekiang,  who  made  the  Revolution  possible. 

Taken  on  its  face  this  document  suggests  that  it  would  be 
difficult  to  assemble  another  company  of  enlightened  and 
unenlightened  Chinese  such  as  wrote  this  document,  and  such 
as  combined  so  much  ignorance  of  Chinese  history,  life  and 
character,  and  of  the  world  and  its  Governments.  Put  out 
from  Nanking,  my  first  impressions  gained  on  reading  it  was 
that  it  was  just  such  a  State  paper  as  might  have  been  put 
forth  by  the  truant  Mings  [1644  to  1662]  in  the  same  region 
— that  triangular  section  between  Shanghai  and  Wuchang  on 
the  North  and  Canton  on  the  South,  identical  with  the  region 
that  asserted  its  independence  in  the  first  war  to  down  the 
Manchus.  It  has  all  the  provincial  narrowness  of  view  and 
all  the  provincial  limitations  in  its  reading  of  the  history  of 
all  China.  It  indicates  a  clouded  vision  filled  with  vast,  imag- 
inary wrongs  such  as  the  Chinese  accused  foreign  nations  of 
visiting  upon  them — a  decided  prejudice  in  favour  of  their 
own  infirmities. 

I  will  place  Chinese  and  Manchus  in  the  "deadly  parallel" 
comparison  to  show  what  lies  back  of  the  Republican  arraign- 
ment: 

412 


REPUBLICAN    STATE    PAPERS 

The  Manifesto  of  the  Provisional  Republican  Government 
to  the  friendly  Powers  is  therefore  the  most  important  docu- 
ment of  the  revolutionary  Rebellion.  It  begins  with  a  pro- 
found and  illimitable  untruth.  It  says  that  the  primary  cause 
of  the  suppression  of  the  individual  qualities  and  aspirations 
of  the  people  is  due  to  Manchu  sway.  The  actual  cause  of  the 
arrested  development  of  the  people  of  China  has  been  known 
to  foreigners  and  to  some  Chinese  for  ages  to  be  the  petrify- 
ing Chinese  educational  system  of  China,  and  has  no  possible 
connection  with  the  Manchus,  except  that  they  abolished  it 


The  second  paragraph  of  the  Manifesto,  to  the  effect  that 
the  Revolution  was  a  national  aspiration,  is  not  so  important, 
but  it  appears  equally  untrue.  The  leaders  and  Sun  Yat-sen 
himself  claimed  that  the  Revolution  was  a  conspiracy,  and 
Sun  Yat-sen's  friends  claim  for  him  the  credit  for  its  suc- 
cess. It  cannot  be  said  to  have  been  at  that  time  the  aspira- 
tion of  the  people  of  China.  The  rest  of  the  Manifesto  may 
be  similarly  disposed  of. 

It  is  difficult  for  Occidentals  to  comprehend  the  degree  of 
official  baseness  reached  in  China  by  the  Asiatic  Court  sys- 
tem, or  the  popular  and  immemorial  customs,  but  it  is  im- 
possible for  the  most  indifferently  informed  observer  to  attrib- 
ute the  evils  of  China  to  the  Manchus.  The  evils  of  which 
Wu  Ting-fang  and  Sun  Yat-sen  complain  in  behalf  of  all 
Chinese  are  those  attributed  to  the  Manchu  Court.  The  cor- 
ruption of  the  Government  in  China  is  always  charged  by 
Chinese  history  to  the  eunuchs  [all  Chinese]  in  the  Palace  and 
the  office-holders  [nearly  all  Chinese]. 

Chinese  history,  by  Chinese,  is  complete  up  to  1644  on 
all  bookshelves  in  China  —  that  is,  until  the  Manchu  Dynasty 
began.  Therein  is  the  story  of  the  Chinese  Court  rule  and 
misrule  which,  as  given  by  the  Chinese,  is  corrupt,  cruel,  and 
base  beyond  all  present-day  Western  understanding.  The 
eunuchs  from  the  Han  Dynasty  downward  were  the  curse  of 
China.  In  the  Tang  Dynasty  they  were  a  national  danger 
threatening  the  unity  of  the  Empire,  and  the  Chinese,  per- 
petuating them  and  their  malign  influence,  had  brought  them- 

413 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

selves  in  their  latest  Dynasty,  the  Ming,  to  such  a  state  of 
rottenness  that  when  the  Manchu  Dynasty  held  its  initial 
Imperial  audience,  the  eunuchs  rushed  in  before  the  highest 
ministers  and  claimed  first  recognition  from  the  Emperor. 

The  Ming  Dynasty  of  the  Chinese  vanished  because  of 
the  extinction  of  all  moral  qualities  at  a  time  when  the  ab- 
sence of  these,  according  to  modern  history,  had  enthroned 
pandemonium  in  the  Palace.  But  then  and  there  the  Manchus 
deprived  the  eunuchs  forever  of  their  office-holding  power 
and  reduced  them  to  their  places  as  menials.  Though  the 
Manchus  continued  the  system,  they  improved  it,  and  executed 
eunuchs  for  exceeding  their  powers. 

The  charges  of  Wu  Ting-fang  and  Sun  Yat-sen  cannot  be 
reconciled  with  the  history  provided  us  by  their  countrymen 
nor  that  of  Western  historians.  The  history  of  the  last  Chi- 
nese or  Ming  Dynasty  is  that  written  by  the  Chinese  [not  the 
Manchus].  That  of  the  Manchu  Dynasty,  though  written,  is 
not  yet  available,  owing  to  the  Chinese  law  of  the  Empire 
which  forbade  anyone,  even  the  Emperor,  from  seeing  what  is 
written,  and  releases  that  history  for  the  inspection  only  of 
posterity.  Allowing  for  Manchu  bias,  no  doubt  that  history 
when  written  will  be  a  very  favourable  one  to  the  Manchus. 

I  have  tried  to  find  in  the  Manchu  Government  parallels 
for  the  maximum  baseness  and  corruption  of  the  Ming  Dy- 
nasty, but  without  success.  China  at  the  precise  time  of  the 
Manchu  conquest  was  anything  but  a  peaceful  land  of  content 
that  is  carelessly  and  ignorantly  described  as  receiving  the 
onslaught  of  an  "alien  horde  sweeping  down  upon  it."  Such 
charges  sound  as  though  China  was  starting  her  Republic  on 
the  basis  of  China's  situation  as  it  was  at  the  end  of  the  Ming 
Dynasty,  and  with  similar  devices.  The  methods  of  warfare 
carried  out  by  the  Chinese  people,  as  well  as  the  famine  hor- 
rors, are  certainly  those  of  the  Dark  Ages. 


CHAPTER  XLI 

THE  MANCHU  DYNASTY 

THE  Manifesto  or  Proclamation  to  the  friendly  Powers, 
promulgated  January  9,  1912,  at  Nanking,  is  directed 
solely  to  foreigners,  ostensibly  in  their  interests,  as  it 
is  addressed  to  their  cupidity.  China's  foreign  relations  in 
their  Chinese  and  Manchu  aspects  will  show  the  truth  or 
falsity  of  the  charges  that  the  Manchus  have  been  anti-foreign 
and  guilty  of  bringing  about  all  the  evils  of  China's  foreign 
complications.  They  will  show  also  the  pro-foreign  or  anti- 
foreign  possibilities  of  a  Republic  -under  these  declarations  or 
those  of  any  other  Chinese  leaders  in  other  future  forms  of 
government  in  China. 

I  have  referred  to  the  Ming,  or  Chinese,  historians.  Since 
the  commencement  of  the  modern  or  Manchu  Dynasty  the 
foreign  affairs  of  China  and  the  West  have  their  own  clear 
Western  history  to  rely  on.  This  shows  that  the  Chinese 
mandarins  opposed  trade  with  foreigners  for  two  centuries. 
The  widowed  family  of  the  last  Ming  Emperor,  in  pitiable  ex- 
tremity, turned  Roman  Catholic  and  took  Latin  names  in  order 
to  bring  about  foreign  intervention  through  the  Pope  at  Rome 
to  expel  the  Manchus.  This  was  done  in  the  same  spirit  in 
which  their  Chinese  subjects  had  let  the  Manchus  into  China. 
Thus  again  the  Chinese. 

Respecting  the  anti-foreign  record  of  the  Manchus,  his- 
tory shows  that  they  erred  in  delegating  foreign  affairs  to 
their  Chinese  agents.  The  Roman  Catholics,  who  created  for 
themselves  their  troubles  in  China,  were  opposed  by  the  second 
Manchu  Emperor,  Kang  Hsi  [1716].  But  foreign  historians 
have  absolved  the  Manchus  from  blame  in  anti-Roman  Catho- 
lic measures.  Yung  Ching,  the  next  Emperor,  deported  the 
Roman  Catholics  from  Central  China  on  recommendation  of 
the  literati  [Chinese]  and  the  Governor  of  Chekiang.  His 

415 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

reason  was  that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  appeared  to  him 
to  set  up  an  authority  that  rivalled  his  own  in  dealings  with 
the  people.  He  was  the  first  Emperor  of  China  to  receive  the 
credentials  of  foreign  envoys  directly  in  his  own  hands — a 
credit  which  thus  belongs  to  the  Manchus.  In  1833  Emperor 
Tao  Kuang  opposed  the  British  upon  representations  of  the 
Portuguese — not  due  to  the  existence  of  any  policy  of  his  own, 
and  more  in  the  spirit  of  opposition  to  foreign  trade  at  Can- 
ton, opposition  that  had  been  established  long  before  the 
Manchus  came. 

Under  Tao  Kuang,  however,  the  Chinese  anti-foreign  pol- 
icy culminated,  and  the  essential  differences  in  the  characters 
of  Chinese  and  Manchus  in  this  respect  is  clearly  shown.  The 
point  of  contact  was  still  Canton.  Of  the  most  famous  men 
of  China  in  that  period  was  the  notorious  Commissioner  Yeh, 
a  Chinese;  the  other  the  Manchu,  Ki  Ying.  The  contrast  of 
these  two  men  is  striking.  Yeh  died  in  enforced  exile  in  Cal- 
cutta, in  expiation  of  his  anti- foreign  crimes,  execrated  by  all 
honest  men.  Of  Ki  Ying,  the  Manchu,  foreigners  vie  in  their 
laudations.  Sir  John  Davis,  Governor  of  Hongkong,  de- 
scribed him  as  the  best  type  of  official  of  the  Empire  of  China 
that  foreigners  had  yet  seen,  and  paid  just  tribute  to  his  states- 
manship, scrupulous  honesty,  and  high  principles  of  honour. 
Ki  Ying,  the  Manchu,  came  as  a  great  light  and  blessing  to 
foreign  intercourse  after  two  centuries  of  benighted  Chinese 
opposition. 

The  Chinese  notion  of  international  relations  was  one 
which  the  Manchus  had  great  difficulty  in  altering.  It  was 
the  Chinese  who  scouted  the  idea  that  the  Queen  of  England 
was  equal  with  the  Emperor  of  China.  The  Manchus,  the 
rising  of  whose  sun  had  been  described  to  them  by  men  whose 
fathers  remembered  it,  had  no  such  notions — these  were  no- 
tions resulting  from  the  "Son  of  Heaven"  traditions  of  China. 

The  Manchu  Throne  rarely  took  decided  attitudes  on  the 
questions  of  foreign  intercourse,  and  was  obliged  to  yield  to 
the  temper  of  the  Chinese  people.  It  interposed  the  Manchu 
ministers  between  the  Chinese  and  foreigners  often  with  suc- 
cess, but  as  often  with  fatal  failure.  The  Manchu  Viceroy 

416 


THE    MANCHU    DYNASTY 

of  Chihli,  Kwei  Liang,  was  unable  to  avert  the  disaster  of 
the  British  and  French  march  on  Peking  in  1860,  when  the 
Chinese  committed  such  barbarities  upon  their  English  and 
French  captives.  But  of  the  officials  of  the  Empire  of  that 
time,  the  Manchu  Prince  Kung,  Wen  Hsiang,  and  Kwei  Liang 
are  the  only  ones  spoken  of  by  Western  historians  as  "wise 
and  liberal  statesmen."  There  was  an  anti-foreign  Manchu 
conspiracy  at  this  time  that  had  arisen  under  the  Manchu 
Emperor  Hsien  Feng,  who  was  an  irresponsible  weakling ;  but 
Prince  Kung,  who  was  his  brother,  together  with  Wen  Hsiang 
and  Kwei  Liang,  as  well  as  the  widow  of  the  Emperor,  the 
late  Empress  Grand  Dowager,  put  them  to  death  [including 
two  Manchu  princes,  Chai  and  Tsin]. 

On  recommendations  of  the  Emperor's  Manchu  advisers, 
Anson  Burlingame  was  sent  as  universal  Envoy  to  the  na- 
tions. It  was  one  of  the  criticisms  made  of  his  Mission  that 
unintentionally  it  "gave  a  wrong  impression  as  to  the  desire 
of  the  Chinese  people  to  adopt  progressive  measures."  The 
Chinese  were  then  incapable  of  the  reform  expected  of  them, 
and  1870,  before  the  Burlingame  Mission  returned,  circulated 
tracts  calling  for  the  extermination  of  Christianity,  and 
brought  on  the  Tientsin  massacre  of  twenty  helpless  foreign- 
ers, as  though  to  repudiate  the  Throne's  act  of  greatness  be- 
fore Wen  Hsiang's  eyes.  In  1873  Tung  Chih,  the  Emperor 
himself,  gave  audience  to  foreign  Ministers  against  all  teach- 
ings of  his  Chinese  subjects. 

Three  Chinese  names  of  distinction  follow  the  names  of 
these  Manchus  to  show  that  Chinese  were  not  dead  to  enlight- 
enment :  Tseng  Kuo-fang  and  Li  Hung-chang,  and  with  them 
Chang  Chih-tung.  The  two  first  gained  fame  in  the  suppres- 
sion of  China's  great  civil  war,  the  T'aiping  Rebellion,  and 
then  by  their  attempts  to  introduce  foreign  learning  into 
China.  Their  efforts  were  almost  counteracted  by  Chang 
Chih-tung,  whose  place  in  history  as  one  of  the  last  statesmen 
of  the  Manchu  Dynasty  appears  to  be  that  of  the  last  great 
Imperialist  demagogue.  His  attitude  on  public  issues  of  re- 
form was  built  upon  a  colossal  ignorance  such  as  Chinese 
possessed  only  in' the  first  years  of  China's  international  rela- 

417 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

tions.  No  good  and  great  act  is  recorded  of  him.  He  wrote 
a  book  in  which  he  showed  that  foreign  enlightenment  was 
"China's  Only  Hope,"  and  executed  numbers  of  reformers, 
most  of  them  men  in  his  own  service. 

Wen  Hsiang,  the  Manchu,  outstripped  every  Chinese  of  his 
time  by  devising  the  Burlingame  Mission  to  bring  China  into 
intimate  contact  with  all  the  Powers  of  the  globe.  In  the 
most  savage  manner  the  Chinese  people,  in  whom  an  inherent 
dislike  of  foreigners  seemed  to  exist,  visited  upon  foreigners 
a  retaliation  that  had  the  consequences  of  Manchu  liberality 
and  statesmanship  as  much  as  any  other  thing  for  its  origin. 
This  is  the  repeated  testimony  of  history  in  Chinese-Manchu 
foreign  intercourse. 

The  Manchu  chief  and  regent,  Dorgon,  who  placed  the 
Manchus  on  the  throne,  was  a  statesman  of  the  first  order, 
who  brought  a  relatively  civilised  army  that  without  blood- 
shed delivered  the  land  from  civil  war.  It  buried  at  Peking 
with  civilised  honors  the  abandoned  body  of  the  suicide  Ming 
Emperor,  and  instead  of  sweeping  down  upon  the  Chinese 
with  an  alien  horde  to  enslave  them,  with  one  proclamation 
established  complete  peace  throughout  one-half  of  China. 

In  the  other  half  the  Manchus  dethroned  cut-throat  kings, 
as  in  Szechuan,  and  consolidated  the  Empire.  Though  their 
reprisals  were  brutal  and  awful  in  the  extreme,  in  accordance 
with  the  practices  of  the  age,  yet  for  those  whom  they  dis- 
placed history  can  find  no  words  that  are  too  severe.  The 
Manchus  were  conciliatory  in  their  treatment  of  the  Chinese, 
and  counteracted  the  hatred  with  which  they  were  received  at 
first  in  China  by  giving  Chinese  equal  representation  with 
the  Manchus  in  all  the  official  appointments.  They  at  first 
treated  foreign  embassies  with  haughtiness,  in  accordance 
with  the  universal  Chinese  attitude.  But  it  is  evident  they 
learned  better  long  before  the  Chinese  did.  It  was  the  Manchu 
Emperor  Kang  Hsi's  mother  and  one  of  the  Manchu  regents, 
So  Ni,  who  secured  the  cancellation  of  the  sentence  of  death 
obtained  by  the  Chinese  literati  against  the  Roman  Catholic 
priest,  Abbe  Schaal. 

The  Manchus  consolidated  and  made  the  Chinese  Empire 

418 


out  of  bloodshed  among  Chinese  by  Chinese.  It  is  the  only 
Dynasty  that  respected  the  graves  and  homes  of  its  predeces- 
sors, refraining  from  desecrating  and  obliterating  them.  It 
gave  the  country  back  to  the  people.  From  that  moment 
China  developed  under  the  Manchus,  until  she  is  larger,  richer, 
and  greater,  and  therefore  has  more  happiness  within,  not- 
withstanding her  foreign  evils,  famine,  and  other  internal 
ills,  than  ever  before  in  her  history.  She  has  been  steadied 
and  held  together  by  the  Manchus,  whose  place  has  now  been 
taken  by  the  Powers. 

In  the  region  to  which  Wu  Ting-fang  and  Sun  Yat-sen 
and  other  Republican  leaders  belong,  and  that  to  this  day  has 
retained  its  separate  individuality  and  identity,  opposition  to 
Manchu  rule,  law,  order,  and  progress  [the  only  modern 
progress  China  has  had]  was  carried  on.  A  little  string  of 
emperors  [Ming  so-called]  kept  up  a  losing  fight  for  ten  years 
there,  after  1644,  during  which  time  they  moved  back  and 
forth  between  Kiangsu  and  Kuangsi,  the  precise  region  of 
the  Republican  revolutionary  "Federation."  For  three  years 
thereafter  they  had  a  stronghold  in  Kueichou,  from  which  they 
were  driven  to  Yunnan,  and  finally  to  Burmah,  where  their 
last  independency  was  run  to  earth.  The  boundaries  of  the 
first  "Republic  of  China"  were  practically  the  same  as  this 
recalcitrant  region  of  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
Szechuan  in  which  political  chaos  sprang  up,  Yunnan  where 
feudalism  was  revived,  and  Kueichou  where  feudal  independ- 
ence recrudesced,  when  the  Republican  revolutionary  .revolt 
came,  all  reverted  to  the  same  state  of  independence  as  when 
the  Manchus  came  to  China. 

The  Tartars,  who  have  ruled  China  except  for  the  Ming 
period  for  a  thousand  years,  were  at  first  "rude  and  barbarous 
people."  But  they  accepted  the  civilisation  of  the  Chinese 
whom  they  conquered,  became  acquainted  with  their  learning 
and  adopted  their  customs  and  manners,  assimilating  all  this 
readily.  At  the  same  time,  removed  from  the  rigorous  North, 
where  they  were  unaccustomed  to  luxury,  they  became  ener- 
vated and  effeminate  and  lost  their  spirit  and  virility  as  con- 
querors, and  were  absorbed  into  the  Chinese  nation. 

419 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

Kublai  Khan,  whose  followers  suffered  this  fate,  was  more 
enlightened  than  the  Chinese.  He  maintained  religious  free- 
dom except  with  respect  to  the  lowest  form  of  worship  in 
China,  Taoism,  whose  books  he  had  burned,  except  one.  He 
established  the  postal  system,  reconstructed  the  Grand  Canal, 
and  sent  out  peaceful  missions  to  various  foreign  countries, 
including  India,  and  it  is  said  Madagascar. 

The  great  Manchu  emperors  of  China  were  Kang  Hsi  and 
Chien  Lung,  to  name  them  in  order  of  their  reigns.  One  of 
the  very  greatest  Manchus  was  Tze  Hsi  An,  the  Empress 
Grand  Dowager.  At  the  beginning  of  the  tenth  century — the 
early  part  of  the  Ming  Dynasty — China's  population  was  esti- 
mated to  have  risen  to  60,000,000  in  numbers.  Kang  Hsi's 
reign  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  in  China's  whole  history. 
He  was  a  great  warrior,  a  great  scholar,  and  a  great  ruler. 
Pott  says :  "In  his  treatment  of  foreigners  he  was  more  lib- 
eral than  those  who  surrounded  him."  He  completed  the 
Manchu  conquest  of  the  Empire.  Chien  Lung  reigned  sixty 
years,  and  brought  the  Manchu  Dynasty  and  China  to  the 
summit  of  Chinese  glory,  and  the  Empire  numbered  "upwards 
of  400,000,000." 

The  Empress  Grand  Dowager  had  yet  more  to  contend 
with,  and  in  her  old  age  was  besieged  by  an  anti-Manchu 
movement,  the  Boxers,  which  she  was  obliged  to  turn  against 
others  in  order  to  protect  the  Throne.  She  had  tried  to  turn 
over  the  affairs  of  State  to  the  incompetent  Emperor  two  years 
before,  but  was  obliged  to  resume  control.  The  Manchu 
Dynasty  needed  leaders,  and  she  surrendered  to  the  young 
Manchu  princes  the  control  of  the  Government.  This,  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  the  Manchus  were  now  utterly 
decadent  and  laid  themselves  open  to  charges  which  made  the 
Boxer  movement  a  sufficient  grievance  for  the  overthrow  of 
the  Dynasty,  and  notwithstanding  she  committed  the  worst 
political  errors  possible,  yet  when  the  Empress  Grand  Dow- 
ager again  resumed  control  of  the  Throne  she  placed  herself 
at  the  head  of  the  reform  movement,  became  a  convert  to  it, 
opened  the  Court,  put  forth  reform  edicts  and  propaganda, 
and  made  herself  the  greatest  of  China's  Imperial  reformers. 

420 


CH'IEN  LUNG,  GREATEST  OF  THE  MANCHU  EMPERORS 

A  signed  portrait,  as  per  seal.  The  landscape  by  the  Chinese  court  painter, 
the  figures  by  the  Jesuit  painters,  Pere  Castiglione  and  Pere  Attiret.  From 
scroll  belonging  to  the  Imperial  Archives  in  the  Forbidden  City. 


THE    MANCHU    DYNASTY 

In  the  case  of  the  Boxer  movement  the  foremost  Chinese 
officials  were  against  the  Throne  and  Court.  Chang  Chih- 
tung,  Viceroy  at  Wuchang ;  Liu  K'un-yi,  Viceroy  at  Nanking ; 
Li  Hung-chang,  Viceroy  at  Canton ;  and  Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  Gov- 
ernor in  Shantung,  entered  into  a  compact  with  the  Consuls 
of  foreign  Powers  to  resist  the  Boxer  movement.  They  were 
supported  by  enlightened  Chinese  in  the  Central  Government 
at  Peking,  who  lost  their  lives  for  their  trouble.  But  they 
were  not  alone.  Within  the  Court  circle  the  Manchu  Jung 
Lu,  protected  by  the  Empress  Grand  Dowager,  fought  the 
anti-foreign  princes  and  the  bloodthirsty  Chinese  generals  and 
ignorant  people ;  while  Kuang  Hsu,  the  Manchu  Emperor  and 
weakling,  stood  profoundly  out  from  the  "four  hundred  mil- 
lions," was  indeed  a  pitiable  giant,  a  martyr  to  reform,  but 
amid  what  seas  of  pygmies  without. 

The  Empress  Grand  Dowager  established  four  great  re- 
forms :  the  Constitutional  System ;  Opium  Suppression ;  Mili- 
tary Reform;  and  Industrial  Development.  She  abolished 
slavery.  This  and  opium  suppression  were  accomplished,  and 
were  two  of  the  greatest  achievements  of  the  rulers  in  China. 

It  has  been  charged  against  the  Manchus  that  the  fact 
that  they  were  so  ready  to  give  up  and  quit  was  evidence  that 
they  had  a  lot  of  money  and  wanted  to  get  away  with  it.  One 
of  the  charges  against  them  made  by  the  reformers  and  revo- 
lutionaries was  that  they  had  enriched  themselves  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  Chinese  nation.  I  myself  have  never  looked 
upon  the  Manchus  as  an  enviable  family.  Anyone  who  has 
seen  the  decimated  and  impoverished  Manchu  communities 
hiding  within  the  ancient  walled  and  now  utterly  wretched 
strongholds  lining  the  highway  by  which  they  entered  China 
from  Manchuria,  would  never  envy  them.  The  annual  budget 
vouchsafed  them  by  the  Chinese  for  maintaining  the  Central 
Government  was  assuredly  not  more  than  that  of  some  of 
the  smallest  independent  states  of  Europe.  The  parsimony 
with  which  the  Court  and  Central  Government  was  treated 
by  the  Chinese  was  such  that  during  the  most  of  her  life  the 
Empress  Grand  Dowager  was  obliged,  as  it  were,  to  hold  the 
knife  to  the  throats  of  the  Chinese  mandarinate  to  get  together 

421 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

the  sums  required  to  conduct  the  Imperial  establishment  and 
administration.  She  had  to  appropriate  sums  under  the  dis- 
guise of  other  names  in  order  to  rebuild  the  summer  home  of 
the  Court  at  the  Western  Hills.  Besides,  no  one  who  knows 
the  Chinese  can  by  any  stretch  of  imagination  conceive  of 
their  being  got  the  better  of  by  a  Manchu  or  suffering  in  the 
minutest  from  the  craft  of  the  Manchu.  What  the  Manchu 
got  from  the  Chinese,  he  deserved  and  earned.  It  is  an  im- 
memorial maxim  in  China  that  the  Tartar  is  an  "easy  mark." 
The  great  corruptionists  of  the  last  four  reigns  in  China  were 
the  Chinese,  Li  Hung-chang,  Li  Han-chang,  and  the  Chinese 
reformers  notably  of  the  Cantonese  party,  whose  foreign  train- 
ing should  have  made  them  ashamed  of  the  process  they 
adopted,  and  lifted  them  above  their  less  fortunate  Manchu 
fellows.  That  some  of  them  were  the  first  to  fly  from  the 
cataclysm  was  incontrovertible  proof  of  their  guilt  in  corrup- 
tion, for  they  paraded  their  wealth  abroad.  If  there  was  re- 
joicing among  officials  at  the  final  release  from  the  exactions 
of  the  Dynastic  system  in  order  to  repair  to  safety  with  stolen 
riches,  the  chorus  of  the  Chinese  mandarinate  must  certainly 
have  drowned  any  cry  that  may  have  escaped  the  Manchus. 

Corruption  in  the  directions  charged  by  the  Chinese  re- 
formers had  its  origin,  according  to  tradition,  in  the  reign  of 
the  Emperor  Mu,  one  thousand  and  one  years  before  the 
Christian  era,  and  never  was  modified  by  the  Chinese.  My 
observation  of  the  lives  of  the  Manchu  princes  at  Peking  was 
that  outside  a  few  families  the  princes  were  quite  poor.  Prince 
Su,  one  of  the  foremost  and  most  influential,  was  a  bankrupt 
when  the  downfall  of  the  Dynasty  came,  and  fled  to  escape  his 
creditors.  The  great  estates  appropriated  by  the  Manchus  and 
Mongols  at  the  time  of  the  conquest  were  some  of  them  only 
nominally  rich.  When  Prince  Chun  became  Regent  and  found 
it  necessary  to  put  his  brothers  Hsun  and  Tao  into  office  in 
order  that  this,  one  of  the  foremost  Manchu  princely  families, 
might  make  a  respectable  appearance  in  keeping  with  its  stand- 
ing in  the  State,  it  was  penniless. 

Prince  Pu  Lun  was  among  those  who  had  nothing  unless 
a  bare  living.  Princess  Pu  Lun,  December,  1911,  expressed 

422 


Pu  Yi,   THE    LAST    MANCHU    EMPEROR,    1908,    AT   THE   TIME    OF    His 

ACCESSION 


THE    MANCHU    DYNASTY 

the  sense  of  relief  among  Manchus  at  the  prospect  of  future 
escape  from  Court  etiquette  and  the  exactions  of  the  Throne. 
She  said  she  hoped  when  these  troubles  were  over  she  would 
be  unimportant  enough  to  take  a  walk  on  the  City  Wall.  "The 
things  the  foreign  and  other  women  did  must  be  perfectly 
grand,"  she  said.  She  had  never  been  to  the  Yellow  Temple 
or  to  the  Temple  of  Heaven  (the  places  all  tourists  and  for- 
eign residents  in  Peking  visit),  or  any  place  but  in  her  own 
house  and  at  a  foreign  home. 

In  the  final  trial  the  Manchu  Court  and  Clan  acted  with 
moderation  and  discretion.  In  all  the  complications  that 
mystified  foreigners  at  Peking,  Nanking,  and  Shanghai,  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  Court  and  Imperial  Family  acted  up  to 
the  revolutionary  side,  on  a  high  plane  of  conduct.  I  find 
little  relatively  to  blame  in  the  Manchus.  Their  genius  con- 
ferred upon  China  as  beneficent  rule  as  she  had  ever  had,  and 
it  was  through  the  period  of  her  greatest  difficulties,  when 
such  tigers  of  outside  enemies  as  China  never  had  seen,  were 
upon  her  back.  It  terminated  with  a  dignity  that  must  always 
command  respect,  sustained  for  nearly  forty  years  by  the 
miraculous  strength  of  but  one  old  Minister  pecked  at  by  the 
critics  of  the  whole  world.  And  what  a  contrast  in  its  demise 
to  the  preceding  Chinese  Dynasty,  whose  last  Emperor  first 
cursed  the  San  Kuan  Temple  because  the  joss  of  the  oracle 
there  was  bad,  and  went  to  Coal  Hill  and  hanged  himself. 

With  their  backs  against  the  wall,  the  last  representatives 
of  the  matchless  line  of  Manchu  Emperors,  the  weakling  Lung 
Yu  Empress  Dowager  with  the  little  Emperor,  refused  to 
make  of  themselves  poltroons  and  surrender  unconditionally 
to  the  hot-headed  revolutionaries. 


CHAPTER  XLII 
THE  "FLOWERY  REPUBLIC" 

BY  the  testimony  of  the  Chinese  themselves  the  opening, 
September  20,  1909,  of  the  Chinese-built  Kalgan  Rail- 
way, and  the  death,  October  4,  1909,  of  Chang  Chih- 
tung,  properly  mark  the  passing  of  Old  China.     The  last  of 
the  great  triumvirate  of  the  Empire — Li  Hung-chang,  the  Em- 
press   Grand    Dowager,    and    Chang    Chih-tung — was    dead. 
"The  triumvirate  is  dead,"  we  said,  "and  China  still  lives." 

In  two  years  China  has  another  triumvirate,  that  of  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai,  Sun  Yat-sen,  and  Li  Yuan-hung.  The  Dynasty  is 
gone,  and  there  remains  a  more  complicated,  wonderful,  and 
incalculable  China  than  before,  because  of  the  spirit  of  the 
West  that  has  now  fully  permeated  it. 

As  I  left  Peking,  following  the  inauguration  of  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai,  China  was  an  oligarchy  under  its  new  triumvirate  accord- 
ing to  which  it  was  more  Chinese  if  possible  than  ever  before. 
What  it  is  at  the  beginning  of  its  new  life  is  described  well 
by  the  conditions  at  its  three  Capitals — for  it  has  in  effect 
three  Capitals:  Nanking  (or  Canton),  Wuchang,  and  Peking. 

At  the  dissolution  of  the  Government  at  Nanking  Sun  Yat- 
sen  and  the  Assembly  there  are  sitting  alone  in  the  shelter  of 
the  Imperial  structures  erected  by  the  Manchu  Tuan  Fang. 
Half  a  hundred  officials  and  reformers  are  present,  and  all  but 
two  or  three  are  foreign  to  the  province.  At  Sun  Yat-sen's 
farewell,  the  City,  the  province,  and  their  people  are  not  rep- 
resented, and  the  wind  in  the  bamboo  is  calling  Nanking  to 
her  old  life. 

Deputies  are  sent  from  Nanking  to  reconcile  the  now  war- 
ring, incorrigible  elements  at  Wuchang  that  gave  the  Republic 
to  China.  Li  Yuan-hung  writes  to  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  crying  out 
against  the  lust  for  gain  on  the  part  of  the  military  com- 
manders suddenly  raised  to  power  in  the  provinces  and  the 

424 


THE    "FLOWERY    REPUBLIC'5 

terrible  plight  of  the  people  under  themselves.  He  finds  the 
Revolutionists  plunderers,  and  not  patriots,  marauding 
through  the  land. 

In  despair,  Li  Yuan-hung  writes :  "The  patriots  are  not 
deterred  by  any  fear  of  execution,  .  .  .  the  final  catastrophe 
cannot  be  long  delayed.  One  dictator  after  another  tries  to 
have  his  way,  and  the  law  is  swept  into  oblivion.  If  this  con- 
tinues, China  must  perish,  not  by  the  hands  of  the  princes 
of  the  Manchu  Dynasty  but  by  the  hands  of  the  heroes  of  the 
Republic;  not  because  of  a  corrupt  despotism  but  because  of 
the  new-born  government.  I  choke  in  speaking  of  these 
things,  but  silence  is  impossible.  From  dawn  to  dark  I  am  as 
one  sitting  on  a  carpet  of  needles,  while  a  fishbone  sticks  fast 
in  my  throat;  I  rise  from  my  bed  at  night  in  perturbation, 
and  my  dress  is  bathed  in  perspiration." 

President  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  replies  to  Li  Yuan-hung  from 
Peking,  confirming  what  he  says. 

"If  our  China  is  to  be  preserved  by  Providence,"  says  he, 
"it  will  be  due  to  your  warning  message  emphasising  the  ten 
evils  [in  China  the  maximum]  under  which  we  labour,  and 
the  three  qualities  [the  essentials]  which  we  lack.  Little  did 
I  dream  that  I  would  ever  witness  in  our  beloved  country 
what  the  European  sage  calls  mob  tyranny.  Poland  and  other 
nations  did  not  perish  at  the  hands  of  others ;  none  but  them- 
selves were  responsible  for  their  ruin.  The  present  anarchy 
brings  our  State  near  to  that  of  Poland.  As  I  sit  alone  and 
ponder  these  things  I  can  only  find  relief  in  the  welling  tears." 

Sun  Yat-sen  leaves  Nanking  for  the  rebellious  centre  Can- 
ton and  the  south-east — his  territorial  responsibility  in  the  tri- 
umvirate. The  press  is  printing  cartoons,  one  of  which  shows 
China  to  be  like  the  reeds  and  the  waterfowl — stirred  by  the 
least  sound  or  zephyr.  Another,  called  "The  Situation,"  shows 
the  province  as  eggs  precariously  balanced  above  the  hand  of 
the  foreigner.  Chinese  officials  and  citizens  attacking  each 
other  with  swords  have  the  inscription  "Guess  the  meaning." 

A  cartoon  showing  Chinese  dressed  like  the  freemen  of 
enlightened  Western  countries  has  the  inscription  "The  ap- 
pearance is  correct,  but  the  spirit  is  far  off."  A  cartoon 

425 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

labelled  "A  hero's  appearance"  shows  a  two-faced  being,  all 
smiles  in  front,  and  fierceness  and  brutality  behind.  With 
their  foreign  clothes  the  men  of  the  Revolution  are  represented 
with  their  eyes  fixed  upon  gain  and  influence,  and  not  upon 
virtue. 

China  is  so  big,  uncouth,  and  unwieldy  that  the  triumvirate 
is  hopeless  of  getting  hold  of  her.  The  superficial  nature  of 
the  anti-Manchu  sentiment,  which  was  only  the  chronic  sign 
of  unrest,  was  proven,  and  as  a  war-cry  had  been  greatly 
abused.  It  was  seen  that  the  people  themselves  were  not  intel- 
ligent respecting  the  object  of  overthrowing  the  Manchu  Dy- 
nasty, but  were  plundering  each  other. 

At  the  time  of  the  abdication  a  foreigner  crossed  the 
country  afoot  from  Shan-hai-kuan  to  Peking  and  inquired 
everywhere  about  the  Revolution,  but  found  that  no  one  had 
heard  of  it  as  such.  The  number  of  Chinese  who  were  in 
connection  with  the  revolutionary  Rebellion  or  of  the  reform 
movement,  >  or  knew  of  it,  were  estimated  by  the  Japanese  In- 
telligence Service — presumed  to  be,  among  foreign  nations, 
the  best  with  respect  to  Chinese  affairs — to  be  not  more  than 
two-fifths  of  the  whole  people. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  from  close  studies  of  China  made  espe- 
cially during  his  retirement  covered  by  the  last  three  years, 
said  that  not  more  than  three-tenths  of  the  whole  people  be- 
longed to  the  advanced  party.  As  for  the  remaining  seven- 
tenths,  they  were  still  conservative  and  satisfied  with  the 
regime  of  the  Empire.  If  the  revolutionaries  should  succeed 
in  overthrowing  the  Dynasty,  he  thought  another  revolution 
might  take  place  headed  by  the  conservatives  and  having  for 
its  object  the  restoration  to  a  monarchy.  According  to  his 
mind,  this  would  mean  chaos  for  several  decades.  Wu  Ting- 
fang  anticipated  a  generation  of  assassination  of  political 
leaders. 

The  condition  of  China  and  the  capabilities  of  the  Chinese 
for  a  long  time  past  are  well  known.  They  have  been  pre- 
sented to  me  from  every  viewpoint  during  my  twelve  years  in 
China,  labouring  upon  it  all.  To  me  as  to  all  men  of  the 
West,  China  must  always  mean  not  the  few  enlightened  lead- 

426 


THE    "FLOWERY    REPUBLIC" 

ers,  the  Republicans,  but  the  masses  scourged  by  contagion, 
famine,  burdened  with  a  new  poverty  due  to  the  higher  plane 
of  living  of  the  nations  who  surround  and  antagonise  her, 
hitherto  badly  governed,  and  now  as  in  the  past  without  any 
government  at  all.  At  the  start  off  of  her  "Flowery  Republic" 
China  is  without  efficient  labour,  is  cursed  by  ignorance,  has 
no  common  language  or  means  of  interstate,  or  even,  in  many 
places,  inter-neighbourhood  communication,  no  systematic  cur- 
rency or  taxation,  no  internal  national  credit,  no  adequate 
communications,  no  money  capital  with  which  to  elevate  her 
economical  plane  so  as  not  to  be  ground  between  those  of  rich 
opposing  nations.  Her  forests  are  impoverished  and  her  rivers 
uncontrolled.  Furthermore,  she  is  encompassed  without  by 
strong  nations  before  which  her  frontiers  are  crumbling. 

Had  China  entered  the  school  of  nations  a  century  ago, 
or  even  a  half-century  ago,  when  Japan  came  into  the  inter- 
national arena,  she  could  have  worked  out  her  problems  in 
detail — and  the  "Chinese  Question"  would  not  have  existed. 
But  as  she  is  the  last,  she  stands  alone  against  the  world. 
Civilisation  is  her  opponent,  and  even  the  massive  oligarchy 
of  the  "Flowery  Republic"  may  well  be  staggered  at  such  a 
situation.  Its  dangers  are  to  be  read  in  the  opinions  held  in 
the  chancellories  of  the  Great  Powers.  The  plans  laid  for 
China  by  the  nations  along  her  frontiers  are  such  as  she  can- 
not fully  realise.  The  Great  Powers  have  already  taken  her 
foreign  Customs.  She  has  yet  to  work  out  her  emancipation 
from  foreign  finance,  and  her  foreign  relations  are  more  com- 
plicated and  formidable  than  ever  before  because  of  the  very 
events  that  have  brought  her  to  consciousness.  Some  of  her 
leaders  now  profess  indifference  to  these  foreign  questions — 
they  are  the  whole  substance  of  her  political  existence.  It  is 
the  Powers  who  have  succeeded  the  Manchus,  at  least  for  the 
time  being.  As  an  entity  and  a  nation  her  fate  is  in  the  hands 
of  four  Powers  whose  territories  completely  surround  her — 
Japan,  Russia,  Great  Britain,  and  France.  Powers  like  the 
United  States,  Germany,  and  the  lesser  European  countries 
can  exercise  little  influence  over  the  Chinese  policies  of  these 
four  Powers.  Near  or  far,  there  is  no  border  or  outside  na- 

427 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

tion  to  come  to  China's  aid  as  in  the  past.  There  are  no  virile 
Manchu  tribesmen  now  to  assume  the  leadership  as  was  the 
case  in  1644.  Those  stronger  outside  peoples  have  worked 
out  their  own  salvation,  and  China  can  no  longer  expect  any- 
thing from  them.  And,  moreover,  the  "Flowery  Republic" 
has  taken  China's  fate  in  its  own  hands. 

As  I  retrace  my  steps  across  Manchuria  the  problem  of 
the  "Flowery  Republic"  impresses  me  as  one  which  its  leaders 
and  its  people  have  yet  to  grasp.  China  has  completely  di- 
gested and  assimilated  the  Manchus,  and  is  now  supremely 
the  undisguised  and  ungoverned  "Chinese  Question."  Any 
revolution  for  her  regeneration  must  henceforth  be  a  revolu- 
tion of  the  Chinese  people.  They  have  been  steadied  within 
and  held  together  by  the  Manchus,  whose  place  has  been  taken 
by  the  Powers  who  now  hold  China  together  from  without. 

The  unrest  of  China's  population  is  the  greatest  proof  of 
China's  growth  and  prosperity.  At  the  zenith  of  her  power 
she  confronts  those  who  have  replaced  the  Manchus.  It  is 
obvious  that  the  national  antagonism  must  now  be  concen- 
trated upon  the  outsider,  whether  that  outsider  is  personified 
in  one  nation  or  in  all  the  Great  Powers  together.  And  what 
must  be  the  consequences  in  such  a  case  when,  guided  by  her 
own  self-selected  helmsman,  she  meets  some  such  immovable 
obstacle  ? 

The  authors  of  the  Republican  documents  and  State  papers 
have  shown  that  even  a  plausible  cause  on  paper  is  not  neces- 
sary to  a  revolution  in  China.  If  the  Republican  State  papers 
correctly  express  the  feelings  of  Republicans,  it  is  to  be  won- 
dered what  a  united  Republican  nation  of  so  many  millions, 
in  such  a  mood,  has  in  store  for  those  who  have  taken  the 
place  of  the  Manchus.  When  other  rebellions  come,  they  must 
now  necessarily  be  anti-foreign,  at  least  in  inspiration,  war- 
cry,  and  sentiment,  because  of  the  immovable  and  gnawing 
reefs  of  the  Powers  around  that  form  the  international  ocean 
in  which  the  ark  of  China  floats.  The  Revolution  has  but 
begun.  China  is  careering  onward  in  her  fate,  subject  per- 
haps alone  to  that  Providence  which  "clears  the  grounding 
berg  and  steers  the  grinding  floe" — images  so  befitting  China. 

428 


THE    "FLOWERY    REPUBLIC" 

As  I  leave  the  "Flowery  Republic"  my  absorbing  thought 
is :  What  will  China  do  when  she  looks  in  the  glass  ?  When 
she  discovers  that  the  thing  ailing  her  is  that  she  is  not  Man- 
chu,  but  Chinese ;  when  she  has  nowhere  to  look  but  to  herself ; 
with  no  longer  a  scapegoat  upon  which  to  visit  her  own  sins ; 
and  when  her  antagonist,  Civilisation  and  the  world,  is  not  one 
she  can  accuse  and  banish.  She  must  sooner  or  later  see  her 
unchanged  spots,  her  coat  close  as  the  skin.  And  what  will 
she  do? 

China  has  shown  that  she  is  no  longer  a  dead  whale  on  the 
ocean  of  international  affairs.  She  is  a  civilisation  and  Na- 
tion in  which  race  persistence,  and  the  persistence  of  social 
problems,  are  the  greatest  force.  But,  as  has  been  said,  "the 
Revolution  has  been  like  a  gale  of  wind — it  lashed  the  surface 
of  the  water  into  angry  white  caps,  but  did  not  reach  or  dis- 
turb the  deeper  currents  of  the  great  sea  of  Chinese  life." 
Will  time  ring  her  political  changes  through  the  various 
chords  named  despotism,  republicanism,  democracy,  monarchy, 
and  despotism  again,  until  all  the  gamut  of  revolution  and 
the  travail  of  slow  regeneration  is  run  ?  The  people  have  never 
taken  part  in  government,  and  taxation  "seems  the  only  sensi- 
tive nerve  in  the  body  politic."  Through  revolutionary  erup- 
tion until  the  people  find  their  places  as  sovereigns  indeed, 
will  the  ashes  and  the  lava  of  Chinese  life  and  existence  settle 
back  again — China  still,  as  Vesuvius  still — the  phases  differ- 
ing but  slightly  to  prove  that  there  is  progress;  nothing 
changed  much  but  geography,  and  that  change  brought  about 
by  her  neighbours,  sometimes  friends  and  sometimes  enemies  ? 
At  present  she  stands  her  ground  only  because  of  diplomatic 
balance.  Her  civilisation,  without  power  of  resisting  outside 
political  forces,  and  without  staying  power,  is  pre-eminently 
"Chinese,"  and  "being  Chinese"  is  the  only  possession  of 
which  she  cannot  be  robbed.  This  has  been  adjudged  suffi- 
cient to  eventually  reunite  all  the  territorial  members  of 
China,  now  or  later  disunited,  but  what  will  be  her  fate  under 
foreign  pressure  through  the  metamorphosis  of  the  secret 
societies  within,  the  breaking  up  of  the  trade  guilds  in  the 
formation  of  commercial  companies,  the  overthrow  of  existing 

429 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

society  by  the  development  of  the  natural  resources  of  the 
country,  laying  down  of  communications  and  taking  up  of 
foreign  knowledge.  These  are  the  real  revolution  of  China, 
the  revolution  that  is  alone  in  the  lives  and  possibilities  of 
the  unnumbered  millions.  It  is  locked  up  in  the  Chinese 
whom  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  leads  and  whose  path  of  salvation  is 
along  the  stubborn  road  of  eternal  vigilance,  willingness  to 
learn,  adaptability,  and  unceasing  toil.  Mankind  has  at  least 
come  to  the  real  "Chinese  Question" :  Chinese  must  at  last 
save  China,  if  not  Eastern  Asia. 

China's  struggle  is  the  greatest  man  has  ever  known.  She 
is  the  last  link  in  civilisation  encircling  the  earth  on  which  we 
dwell.  She  may  disrupt  the  work  of  solution  of  the  mystery 
of  races  and  of  political  existence  so  far  developed  by  man- 
kind. But  400,000,000  of  sober,  brainy,  industrious,  imagina- 
tive people,  whose  desires  are  peace,  I  believe  to  be  capable 
of  adding  the  greatest  of  all  contributions  to  civilisation. 


APPENDIX 

DIARY   OF   THE    REVOLUTIONARY 
REBELLION 

SZECHUAN  INDEPENDENCY 

August         24  .  General  strike  at  Chengtu  against  the  Imperial 

railway  policy. 
September     7  .   Viceroy    Chao    Er-feng    surprises    and    arrests 

strike  leaders  and  revolutionaries. 
8  .  Martial  law  at  Chengtu. 

12  .  Throne  orders  Chao  Er-feng  immediately  to  sup- 
press disorder. 
14  .   British  and  American  Consuls  order  their  Sze- 

chuan  missionaries  to  places  of  safety. 
Throne  appoints  Tsen  Chun-hsuan  head  of  the 
Szechuan  military  forces,  and  Tuan  Fang  com- 
missioner to  arrange  the  railway  difficulties. 
Throne  confers   the  Yellow  Jacket  on   Princes 

Tsai  T'ao  and  Tsai  Fu. 

16  .  The  Regent  Prince  Chun  reviews  the  Imperial 
Body  Guard  at  Peking,  presenting  it  with  his 
own  colours. 

Army  manoeuvres  on  an  unprecedented  scale  ar- 
ranged to  take  place  near  Ka'i-ping,  Chihli. 
29    .    Throne  refuses  Prince  Ching  permission  to  re- 
sign.' 
October      4  .    .   National  patriotic  anthem  and  music  adopted. 

WUCHANG  REPUBLIC 

October      9  .    .   Revolutionist  bomb  explosion  at   Hankow. 

Viceroy  Jui  Cheng  raids  revolutionary  resorts  at 
Wuchang,     twenty-eight     revolutionaries     ar- 
rested. 
IO  .    .   Revolutionist  revolt  in  Wuchang. 

Throne  commends  Jui  Cheng  and  others. 

431 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

October     u   .    .   Revolutionists    subdue    Wuchang    and    proclaim 

war  upon  the  Manchu  Government. 
Throne  commends  Jui  Cheng. 
Jui  Cheng  flees. 

12  .    .   Revolutionists  take  Hanyang. 

Throne  cashiers  Jui  Cheng. 

13  .    .   Revolutionists  occupy  Hankow. 

14  .    .  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  appointed  Viceroy  of  Wuchang. 

Tsen    Chun-hsuan    appointed    Viceroy    of    Sze- 

chuan. 
Revolutionist  newspaper  Ta  Han  Pao  appears  at 

Wuchang. 

15  .    .   Informal   exchange   of  'views    among  the    great 

Powers. 

16  .    .   Imperialist   Admiral    Sah    Chen-ping   arrives    at 

Hankow. 

Foreign  bankers  at  Peking  refuse  a  war  loan  to 
the  Imperial  Government. 

17  .    .   Li  Yuan-hung,  Revolutionist  leader,  notifies  for- 

eign Consuls  of  intention  to  attack  the  Imperi- 
alists. . 
Admiral    Sah    Chen-ping    assembles    eight    war 

vessels. 
"          18  .    .  "  Battle  of  Kilometre  10." 

19  .    .  Throne    orders    Yin    Chang,    Minister    of    War, 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  Tsen  Chun-hsuan  and  Tuan 
Fang  to  administer  rewards  and  punishments 
to  stop  rebellion.  t 

Ichang  passes  over  to  Revolutionists. 

20  .    .  Imperialists  retreat  from  "  Kilometre  10." 

Throne  orders  memorials  submitted  to  the  Cabi- 
net instead  of  to  the  Throne. 
General  Yin  Chang  mobilising  Imperialist  Army 

at  Sin-yang-chow. 

"          22  ..  Hsian-fu,   Shensi,  revolts  and  sets  up  an  inde- 
pendency. 
25  .    .  Feng  Shan  assassinated  at  Canton. 

Changsha  passes  over  to  the  Revolutionists. 
Imperial  Assembly  impeaches  Sheng  Hsuan-huai. 

432 


APPENDIX 

October    26  .    .   Throne  dismisses  Sheng  Hsuan-huai. 

Tang  Shao-yi  appointed  Minister  of  Communica- 
tions. 

"          27  ..  Li  Yuan-hung  proclaimed  "  President  of  the  Re- 
public of  China." 

Lung    Yu    Empress    Dowager    contributes    taels 
1,000,000  for  military  expenses  in  Hupeh. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  appointed  High  Commissioner  of 
all  naval  and  military  forces. 

Admiral  Sah  notifies  the  foreign  Consuls  he  will 
bombard  Wuchang. 

Casualties  for  the  day  before  Hankow  estimated 

at  2,000. 
"          28  ..   Imperialists  retake  "  Kilometre  10." 

Imperial   Assembly   and   Army    League   demand 
political  freedom  for  the  people. 

29  .    .  Throne  orders  the  arrest  of  Jui  Cheng. 

Imperialists  capture  and  begin  burning  Hankow. 

30  .    .   Throne  issues  a  decree  of  penitence,  and  grants 

the  Imperial  Assembly's  demands. 
Throne  grants  general  amnesty. 
Throne  orders  General  Yin  Chang  and  Admiral 

Sah    Chen-ping    to    recapture    Hankow    and 

Wuchang. 
November    I    .    Conflagration  of  Hankow  reaches  climax. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  near  Hankow  opens  negotiations 

with    Revolutionists;   General   Yin   Chang   re- 
turns to  Peking. 
Prince   Ching,   Na   Tung,   and   Hsu   Shih-chang 

resign. 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai  appointed   Premier  and  ordered 

to   form   a   Cabinet. 
General  Yin  Chang  appointed  Chief  of  General 

Staff. 

Nanchang  passes  to  the  Revolutionists. 
2    .    Tai-yuan-fu  passes  to  Revolutionists. 

Throne  transfers  the  framing  of  the  Constitution 

from  the  care  of  the  Nobles  to  the  Imperial 

Assembly. 

433 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

,    Throne   orders   Yuan   Shih-k'ai   to   return   with 

haste  to  Peking. 

Imperial  Assembly  and  Army  League  frame  the 
"Nineteen  Articles" — demands  upon  the 
Throne. 


SHANGHAI  INDEPENDENCY 

November    3    .    Shanghai  passes  to  the  Revolutionists  and  forms 
the  following  government: 
Director  of  Foreign  Affairs — Wu  Ting-fang. 
Vice-Director  of  Foreign  Affairs — Yu  Ya- 

ching. 
Director  of  Commercial  Affairs — Wang  Yi- 

ting. 
Director  of  Financial  Affairs — Shen  Wan- 

yung. 
Director  of  Civil  Administration — Li  Ping- 

hsu. 
Commander  of  Military  Forces — Li  Hsieh- 

ho. 
Vice-Commander  of  Military  Forces — Cheng 

Han-ching. 

Throne  accepts  the  "  Nineteen  Articles." 
Powers  land  troops  at  Shanghai. 
4    .    Soochow  passes  to  the  Revolutionists. 

Admiral  Murdock  lands  200  marines  at  Shang- 
hai. 
Germany   adds    50   marines   to   her   garrison   at 

Tientsin. 
,  5    .    Throne  recognises  the  Revolutionists  in  an  edict 

giving  them  the  status  of  a  political  party. 
Mass  meeting  at  Tsinan-fu,   Shantung,   declares 
independence,  elects  Sun  Pao-chi  President  and 
demands : 

1.  That  no  foreign  loans  be  raised  to  sup- 

press the  revolt; 

2.  Hostilities    cease    and    Imperial    Govern- 

434 


November    6 


APPENDIX 

ment  yield  to  the  demands  of  the  south- 
ern army; 

3.  That   soldiers    be    not   required   to   leave 

their  own  provinces; 

4.  That  taxes  be  retained  within  the  prov- 

ince; 

5.  The  establishment  of  a  republic; 

6.  Complete  provincial  autonomy,  including 

things  military. 

Wholesale  resignations  of  officials  at  Peking. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  declines  Premiership. 

Huang  Hsing  reaches  Wuchang  and  becomes 
Commanding  General  under  Li  Yuan-hung. 

Revolutionists  protest  against  the  activities  of 
the  Imperial  Assembly. 

Throne  seeks  a  foreign  loan,  urges  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai  to  hasten  to  Peking,  appoints  General 
Chang  Shao-tseng  envoy  to  conciliate  the  peo- 
ple. 

Amoy,  Ningpo,  Shaohsing,  Chingkiang,  Chang- 
chow,  Quinsan  and  Sungkiang  go  to  the  Revo- 
lutionists. 

Throne  instructs  Viceroy  Chang  Jen-chun  at 
Nanking  not  to  oppose  the  Revolutionists. 

Throne  releases  imprisoned  Revolutionists  at 
Peking. 

Foreign  powers  take  measures  for  protecting 
their  citizens  and  subjects  in  China. 

General  Wu  Lu-cheng  murdered  at  Shih-chia- 
chuang. 

Imperial  Assembly  formally  appoints  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai  Premier  and  adjourns. 


CANTON  INDEPENDENCE 

November    8    .    Foreign  Legations  at  Peking  put  on  a  defence 

footing. 

Li  Yuan-hung  and  his  five  Generals  agree  to  ask 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai  to  become  President. 

435 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

* 

Uprisings   around   Canton;  British   Consul  pro- 
tects Viceroy. 

Panic  in  Peking  and  flight  of  many  people. 
November    8    .    General    Chang    Shao-tseng    resigns    and    takes 

refuge  in  Tientsin. 
One    hundred    Revolutionists    attack    Viceroy's 

yamen  in  Nanking. 
9    .    Canton  proclaims  a  "  Republic  of  Kuangtung " 

and  elects  a  Governor-General;  Viceroy  flees 

to  Hongkong. 
Foochow,  Swatow,  Anking,  Yunnan-fu,  and  the 

provinces   of  Yunnan   and   Kueichou   pass   to 

the  Revolutionists. 
Yuan    Shih-k'ai    promises    to    start   for    Peking, 

having  failed  to  reach  any  understanding  with 

Li  Yuan-hung. 
About   200   Revolutionists   unsuccessfully   attack 

the  Viceroy's  yamen,   Nanking. 
German,  British,  Japanese,  and  American  naval 

vessels  land  marines  at  Nanking  to  bring  off 

their  nationals  and  consulates. 


NANKING— REPUBLIC  OF  CHINA 

November  10    .    Slaughter  of  revolutionary  suspects  by  Imperi- 
alists at  Nanking. 

11  .    Wu  Ting- fang  publishes  appeal  to  Prince  Chun 

to  abdicate. 

Two  delegates  from  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  fail  to  se- 
cure an  understanding  with  Li  Yuan-hung. 

Shanghai  government  urges  organisation  and 
unity  of  provinces. 

12  .    Admiral    Sah    Chen-ping's    fleet   begins    turning 

over  to  Revolutionists. 
Revolutionist  council  of  war  at  Suchow. 
Chefoo  passes  to  the  Revolutionists. 
Panic  and  flight  at  Peking. 
America  unofficially  gives  out  her  policy. 

436 


APPENDIX 

November  13    .    Yuan  Shih-k'ai  reaches  Peking. 

Throne  appoints  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  commander  of 
all  troops  in  the  region  of  Peking. 

Revolutionists  at  Hankow  reject  Yuan  Shih- 
k'ai's  terms. 

Manchurian  Revolutionists  at  Mukden  declare 
autonomy  and  elect  Chao  Er-hsun  President; 
they  declare  all  revenues  shall  be  retained  by 
the  province,  whose  connection  with  Peking  is 
severed ;  that  Manchuria  would  aid  neither 
Revolutionists  nor  Imperialists  and  would  af- 
ford the  fullest  protection  to  foreigners. 

14  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  confers  with  Prince  Ching. 
Revolutionists  mobilising  at  Chingkiang. 
General   Chang  Hsun  Imperial   Commander  de- 
clares defiance. 

15  .    Yuan  Shih-k'ai  accepts  Premiership. 

Throne  consents  to  Sun  Pao-chi's  presidency  in 
Shantung. 

Chihli  provincial  assembly  recommends  a  Re- 
public. 

Reign  of  terror  at  Nanking. 

16  .    Yuan  Shih-k'ai  names  his  first  Cabinet. 

Li  Yuan-hung  through  foreign  Consuls  asks 
recognition  of  the  federated  provinces. 

17  .    Revolutionists  advance  on  Nanking. 

Increased  fighting  at  Hankow. 

18  .    Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  cabinet  resigning. 

Foreign  Ministers  instruct  missionaries  to  leave 
interior. 

19  .    Admiral    Sah's    ships    bombard    Imperialists    at 

Hankow. 
Three-fourths  of  Hankow  destroyed. 

20  .    Sun  Yat-sen  leaves  London. 

21  .    General  Chang  Hsun  prepares  to  withstand  siege. 

So-called  "National  Convention"  at  Shanghai. 

23    .    Wu   Ting-fang  notifies   foreign   Consuls   of  im- 
pending attack  upon  Nanking. 

437 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

November  24    .    Revolutionists   under   General   Hsu    Shou-cheng 

advance  on  Nanking. 
Battle  of  Hanyang  begins. 

25  .    Shantung  forswears  independence. 

Manchurian  troops  respond  to  Throne's  orders. 

26  .    Attack  upon  Nanking. 

Diplomatic  body  represents  to  Yuan-Shih-k'ai  the 
necessity  of  no  disorders  in  Peking. 

Throne  swears  allegiance  to  the  "Nineteen  Ar- 
ticles." 

Szechuan  Revolutionists  announce  a  republic. 

27  .    Imperialists  take  Hanyang. 

Tuan  Fang  murdered. 
Republic  declared  in  Szechuan. 

28  .    Kuangtung    preparing    to    send     10,000    troops 

north. 

29  .    Revolutionists  repulsed  before  Nanking. 

30  .    Revolutionists  take  Purple  Hill,  Nanking. 

Three  days'  truce  and  an  armistice  arranged  at 

Hankow. 

Nov.-Dec.  Outer  Mongolia  and  Tibet  revolt. 

December     i    .    General  Chang  Hsun  abandons  Nanking. 

2    .    Occupation  of  Nanking  by  the  Revolutionists. 

5  .    Nanking  selected  to  be  the  republican  capital. 

Dismissal  of  the  Prince  Regent  arranged. 

6  .    Throne  decrees  Prince  Chun's  abdication. 

7  .    Armistice  extended  to  December  21. 

8  .    Republican  assembly  at  Wuchang  makes  known 

its  constitution,  providing  for  the  election  of  a 
Provisional  President  and  National  Assembly. 
The    Provisional    President    must   call    an    elec- 
tion  within   six  months   to   confirm   the   Con- 
stitution. 
"  9    .    Tang  Shao-yi  leaves  Peking  for  Wuchang  and 

Shanghai 

ii    .    Tang   Shao-yi   reaches  Wuchang. 
14    .    Nanking  made  capital  and  Sun  Yat-sen  selected 

to  be  the  first  President. 

Huang  Hsing  appointed  to  act  as  President 
pending  Sun  Yat-sen's  arrival. 

438 


APPENDIX 

•A  Constitution  modelled  on  that  of  the  United 
States  adopted  by  the  Republican  delegates  at 
Nanking;  with  provision  for  calling  a  conven- 
tion of  the  people  within  six  months : 

ARTICLE  i — THE  PROVISIONAL  PRESIDENT 

SECTION  i. — The  Provisional  President  shall 
be  elected  by  the  delegates  appointed  by 
the  Governor-Generals  of  those  Provinces 
which  have  declared  their  independence. 
A  two-thirds  vote  shall  be  necessary  for 
his  election.  Each  Province  shall  be 
entitled  to  one  vote. 

SECTION  2. — The  Provisiona.  President  shall 
be  vested  with  full  power  to  administer 
the  affairs  of  the  Republic  of  China. 

SECTION  3. — The  Provisional  President  shall 
be  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and 
Navy  of  the  Republic  of  China. 

SECTION  4. — The  Provisional  President  shall 
have  power,  with  the  concurrence  of  the 
Assembly,  to  declare  war  and  peace  and 
make  treaties. 

SECTION  5. — The  Provisional  President  shall 
have  power,  with  the  concurrence  of  the 
Assembly,  to  appoint  the  Ministers  of  the 
Executive  Boards  of  the  Provisional 
Government  and  special  Diplomatic 
officials. 

SECTION  6. — The  Provisional  President  shall 
have  power,  with  the  concurrence  of  the 
Assembly,  to  establish  a  system  of  Na- 
tional Courts  of  Justice. 

ARTICLE  2. — THE  ASSEMBLY 

SECTION  i. — The  Assembly  shall  be  com- 
posed of  representatives  appointed  by  the 
Provisional  Government. 

439 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

SECTION  2. — Each  Province  shall  be  limited 
to  three  representatives  in  the  Assembly, 
the  method  of  appointing  such  representa- 
tives to  be  determined  by  the  Government 
of  the  Province  from  which  they  come. 
SECTION  3. — Each  representative  shall  be 

entitled  to  one  vote  in  the  Assembly. 
SECTION  4. — The  duties  and  powers  of  the 
Assembly  shall  be  as  follows: 

(a)  To  determine  the  matters  referred 

to  in  Article  i,  sections  4  and  6. 
(b*)  To  approve  the  action  of  the  Pro- 
visional President  in  matters  re- 
ferred to  in  Article  i,  section  5. 

(c)  To    determine    the    Budget    of    the 

Provisional    Government. 

(d)  To   supervise    the   accounts   of   the 

Provisional    Government. 

(e)  To  determine  all  matters  concern- 

ing   the    taxation,    currency    and 
public  debt  of  the  Republic. 
(/)  To  make  laws  for  the  Republic  dur- 
ing Provisional   Government, 
(g)   To  determine  all   matters  referred 
to    the    Assembly   by    the    Provi- 
sional President. 

(A)  To  answer  questions  put  to  the 
Assembly  by  the  Provisional 
President. 

SECTION  5. — No  matter  shall  be  passed  with- 
out the  concurrence  of  a  majority  of  the 
representatives  present  in  the  Assembly. 
Matters  referred  to  in  Article  i,  section  4, 
must  have  the  concurrence  of  two-thirds 
of  the  representatives  present  in  the 
Assembly. 

SECTION  6. — Every  measure  which  shall  have 
passed  the  Assembly  shall,  before  it  be- 
comes law,  be  presented  by  the  Speaker  of 
the  Assembly  to  the  Provisional  President 

440 


for  confirmation.  If  he  approves  he  shall 
sign  and  seal  it,  and  instruct  the  execu- 
tive officers  concerned  to  act  accordingly. 

SECTION  7. — If  the  Provisional  President 
disapproves  any  measure,  he  shall  return 
it  to  the  Assembly  with  his  objections  for 
reconsideration  by  them  within  ten  days 
from  the  time  it  was  first  presented  to  him. 
If  the  Assembly  after  reconsideration 
shall,  by  a  two-thirds  vote,  agree  to  pass 
the  measure,  it  shall  become  law  and  be 
put  in  force  according  to  the  preceding 
section. 

SECTION  8. — The  Assembly  shall  elect  its 
Speaker  from  among  its  own  members  by 
ballot,  and  a  majority  of  votes  shall  deter- 
mine the  election. 

SECTION  9. — The  Assembly  shall  determine 
its  own  rule  of  procedure. 

SECTION  10. — Before  the  Assembly  is  organ- 
ised the  delegates  appointed  by  various 
Provisional  Governments  shall  temporarily 
perform  the  duties  of  the  Assembly,  but 
the  delegates  from  each  Province  shall 
cast  only  one  vote  for  that  Province. 

ARTICLE  3. — THE  EXECUTIVE  BOARDS 

SECTION  i. — The  Executive  Boards  shall  be 
as  follows: 

(a)   Board  of  Foreign  Affairs. 
(6)  Board  of  Civil  Affairs. 
•  (c)  Board  of  Finance. 

(d)  Board  of  War. 

(e)  Board  of  Communication. 
SECTION  2. — There  shall  be  a  Minister   for 

each  Board,  who  shall  have  charge  of  the 
affairs  of  that  Board. 

SECTION  3. — Rules    governing    and    defining 
the  powers  and  duties  of  the  officers  of 
441 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

each  Board  shall  be  approved  by  the  Pro- 
visional President  before  being  put  in 
force. 

ARTICLE  4. — BY-LAWS 

SECTION  i. — Within  six  months  after  the 
establishment  of  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment the  Provisional  President  shall  call  a 
convention  of  the  people.  The  Assembly 
shall  draw  up  rules  to  govern  the  calling 
of  this  convention. 

SECTION  2. — The  articles  of  Confederation 
for  the  Provisional  Government  of  the 
Republic  of  China  shall  become  void  from 
the  day  when  the  Constitution  of  the 
Republic  of  China  comes  into  full  force. 
December  16  .  Sun  Yat-sen  leaves  Singapore. 

Nanking  Republican  Assembly  adopts  minimum 
conditions  for  peace. 

17  .    Tang  Shao-yi  reaches  Shanghai. 

18  .    Yuan  Shih-k'ai  moves  into  the   Foreign   Office, 

Peking. 

General  Lan  Tien-wei  telegraphs  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
to  be  quick  in  making  his  choice  as  to  whether 
he  will  be  a  Tsao  Tsao,  a  Wang  Mang,  or  a 
Washington — the  first  two  famous  Han 
traitors. 

Peace  Conference  opens  at  Shanghai. 
United    States,    Great    Britain,    France,    Russia, 
Japan  make  representations  to  the  Peace  Com- 
missioners counselling  conciliation.     State  De- 
partment gives  out  the  following: 

"The  identic  note  is  to  the  effect  that  these 
Governments  consider  that  the  present 
struggle  in  China  seriously  affects  not 
only  China  herself,  but  also  the  material 
interests  and  the  security  of  foreigners 
in  that  country.  The  note  continues 
with  a  statement  that  the  Governments, 

442 


APPENDIX 


while  maintaining  an  attitude  of  strict 
neutrality,  deem  it  worth  while  to  point 
out  to  the  two  delegations  the  necessity 
of  bringing  the  present  disturbances  to 
an  end.  The  Governments  express,  the 
belief  that  this  attitude  responds  to  the 
desires  of  both  factions." 
December  20  .  Armistice  extended  seven  days. 

21    .    Yuan  Shih-k'ai  refuses  to  accept  a  republic. 
25    .    Sun  Yat-sen  arrives  in  Shanghai. 

Conference    of    Japanese    Cabinet    with     Elder 

Statesman    agree    that    in    case    the    Chinese 

Revolutionists  insist  on  a  republic  for  China, 

Japan  will  place  no  obstacles  in  their  way. 

Peace  conference  agrees  to  a  national  convention 

to  decide  the  future  form  of  government. 
Republicans   declare    the    Revolution   completely 

successful. 

"          26    .    Yuan  Shih-k'ai  accepts  plan  of  deciding  future 
form  of  government. 

27  .    Court  signifies  willingness  to  agree  to  abdication. 

28  .    Emperor  "ceases  His  studies." 

Court  and  Imperial  Clan  accept  the  Republican 
proposals  for  determining  the  future  form  of 
government. 

29  .    Sun    Yat-sen    elected    Provisional    President    at 

Nanking. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  repudiates  his  acquiescence  in  the 
Republican  proposal  to  decide  the  future  form 
of  government  on  account  of  the  circumstances 
attending  the  election  of  Sun  Yat-sen. 

Tang  Shao-yi  resigns. 

"          30    .    Imperial    Assembly   resumed   and   votes   against 
the  republic. 


1912 
January    I 


Sun  Yat-sen  inaugurated. 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  accepts  Tang  Shao-yi's  resigna- 
tion. 

Eight  hundred  troops  at  Lanchow,  Chihli,  mu- 
tiny. 

443 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

Yuan  Shih-k'ai  declares  he  will  fight  for  a 
monarchy. 

January    2  .      .   Nanking  Government  notifies  the  Powers  of  its 
formation. 

3  .      .   Nanking  Government  invites  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  to 

Shanghai  to  negotiate. 

Sun  Yat-sen  offers  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  the  Presi- 
dency. 

4  .      .  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  invites  Wu  Ting-fang  to  Peking. 

American  Minister  Calhoun  telegraphs  for 
troops,  so  that  the  United  States  will  not  de- 
fault in  its  obligations  to  assist  in  guarding 
the  international  line  of  communications  to 
Peking. 

Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager,  orders  the  Princes 
to  disgorge  in  order  to  meet  military  expenses. 

Fighting  at  Huang-pei,  north  of  Hankow. 

Lanchow  mutineers  subdued. 

Recriminations  between  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  and 
Wu  Ting- fang. 

Wu  Ting-fang  declines  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  invita- 
tion to  Peking,  and  his  counter  proposals. 

Foreign  troops  garrison  the  line  of  communica- 
tions  from  Peking  to   Shan-hai-kuan — Ameri- 
cans lacking. 
6  .     .  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  declares  Sun  Yat-sen's  oath  to  be 

in  violation  of  the  terms  of  peace. 
8  .     .  Russia  presses  China  on  frontier  questions. 
10  .      .   Nanking  Government  offers  terms  to  the  Man- 
chus  to  abdicate,  namely : 
"Provisional   Government  to   Yuan   Shih-k'ai: 

1.  The  Emperor  shall  be  treated  with  all 

the  dignity  attaching  to  the  Sovereign 
of  a  foreign  nation  on  Chinese  soil. 

2.  The  Court  shall  reside  at  the  Summer 
.  Palace. 

3.  His  Majesty  shall  receive  a  liberal  al- 

lowance, the  amount  to  be  settled  by 
the  National  Assembly. 

444 

s' 


APPENDIX 

4.  All    their    ancestral    mausoleums    and 

temples  shall  be  secured  to  them. 

5.  The  person  of  the  Imperial  Family  shall 

be  fully  protected,  and  their  property 
and  wealth  retained  by  the  Manchus. 

6.  Manchus,  Mohammedans,  Turkestanese, 

and  Tibetans  will  be  treated  as 
Chinese  citizens,  and  their  private 
property  protected. 

7.  The    Eight   Banners   shall    continue   to 

draw  the  same  pensions  as  heretofore, 
until  further  means  can  be  devised  of 
enabling  them  to  find  a  comfortable 
living.  The  former  restrictions  put 
upon  the  bannerman's  right  to  trade 
and  to  reside  outside  fixed  localities 
are  removed. 

8.  The  Imperial  Princes  shall  retain  their 

titles  and  property  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  Chinese  Government. 


PEKING— THE  FLOWERY  REPUBLIC 

January  15  .      .   Revolutionists  land  at  Tengchow,  Shantung. 

Imperial  Clan  and  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  arrange  plan 

of  abdication. 
Revolutionist    expedition    leaves    Shanghai    for 

Chefoo.  >  . 

.    Attempt   to   assassinate  Yuan    Shih-k'ai   with  a 
bomb. 

17  .     .  Imperial   Court  selling  the   Palace  treasures  of 

Mukden. 

18  .     .   Seven  Mongol  Princes  in  Peking  oppose  abdica- 

cation,  and  the  Republic,  in  concert  with  sev- 
eral Manchu  Princes. 

19  .     .  Detachment   American    I5th    Infantry   to   guard 

line  of  communications  to  Peking  arrives  at 
Ching-wan-tao. 
22  .     .  Lung  Yu  Empress  Dowager,  favours  hostilities. 

445 


THE    FLOWERY    REPUBLIC 

January  23  .     .  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  urges  Manchus  to  stand  together, 
pay  the  troops  and  resist. 

25  .      .  Yuan    Shih-k'ai   orders    Imperialist   Generals   to 

await  the  Revolutionist  advance  before  fight- 
ing. 

26  .     .  Throne    confers    title    of    Marquis    upon    Yuan 

Shih-k'ai. 

General  Liang  Pi  wounded  by  a  bomb  thrown  by 
an  assassin. 

27  .      .   General  Tuan  Chi-jui  devises  a  combined  refusal 

of  forty-six  generals  and  lower  officers  to  fight 
the  Revolutionists,  and  telegraphs  it  to  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai. 

Attempt  to  kill  General  Chiang  Huai-chih  with 
a  bomb  at  Tientsin. 

28  .      .  Assembly  of  representatives  of  the  Revolutionist 

provinces  inaugurated  in  Nanking. 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai  brings  3000  of  his  own  troops  to 
Peking. 

29  .     .  Armistice  expires. 

30  .     .  General  Liang  Pi  dies. 

Lung   Yu   Empress   Dowager   finally   agrees   to 
abdication  in  accordance  with  the  Republican 
conditions,  and  summons  a  Cabinet  meeting. 
"        31   .      .  Cabinet   receives   the   Lung  Yu   Empress   Dow- 
ager's notification  of  intention  to  abdicate. 

February  I   .     .  Throne  instructs  the  Foreign  Office  to  consum- 
mate peace. 
9  .      .A  week's  armistice  arranged. 

Terms    of    abdication    ratified   at    Nanking    and 
Peking. 

11  .      .  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  Cabinet  receives  Prince  Ching. 

12  .     .  Throne  abdicates. 

13  .      .   Yuan  Shih-k'ai  assumes  position  of  organiser  of 

the  Republic. 
"        14  ..   Sun   Yat-sen    resigns    to    take   effect   upon    the 

election  of  a  new  President. 

Nanking  Government  objects  to  Yuan  Shih-k'ai's 
assumption  as  organiser  of  the  Republic. 
446 


APPENDIX 

» 

February  15.      .    Nanking  Assembly  elects  Yuan    Shih-k'ai  Presi- 
dent. 

19  .      .  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  adopts  the  Western  calendar  and 

notifies  the  Powers  of  his  election. 

20  .      .Li  Yuan-hung  elected  Vice-President. 

23  .      .   Nanking      Government      sends      deputation      to 

Peking. 
27  .      .   Deputation    from    Nanking,    and    Tang    Shao-yi 

reach  Peking. 
29  .      .   Soldiers   mutiny   at    Peking   and   begin   burning 

and  sacking. 
March     i     .      .   Mutineers  continue  looting  and  burning. 

2  .      .   Order  restored  in  Peking. 

3  .      .   Demonstration  of  international  troops  at  Peking. 

Inniskilling   Fusiliers   drive   Imperial   troops   out 

of  Fengtai. 
3-4     .      .   Council  of  War  at  Nanking. 

10  .      .  Yuan  Shih-k'ai  inaugurated. 

Eight    thousand    armed   men    revolt   at    Canton. 
Fighting  begins. 

11  .      .   Provisional  Constitution  adopted  at  Peking. 

12  .      .   Tang  Shao-yi  designated  Premier. 

13  .      .   Casualties  at  Canton,  estimated  1000  killed. 

British  and  French  garrison  Shameen. 

14  ..   Battle  at  Canton. 

15  .      .  Two    hundred    mutineers    executed    at    Canton. 

Casualties  aggregate  1500. 

16  .      .   Fighting  at  Swatow. 

18  .      .  Heavy  fighting  at  Swatow. 

19  .      .   Emeute  at  Canton  ended. 

29     .      .   Yuan  Shih-k'ai's  Cabinet  formed; 
April       i     .      .   Sun  Yat-sen  lays  down  office. 

3     .      .  Nanking  Assembly  transfers  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment to  Peking. 
Sun  Yat-sen  leaves  Nanking. 

(I) 


447 


A     000103374     5 


